The Kingdom Reborn
by Adam Durlock
Summary: Two months have passed since Ranma Saotome defeated Saffron yet something inside of him has changed. The future will bring unforseen consequences to the young Martial Artist Moved to Crossovers where it belongs
1. Chapter 0: Prologue

Ranma Saotome, Heir to the Saotome Style School of 'Anything Goes' Martial Arts, stood on the rooftop of the Tendo Dojo and was looking out over the horizon. It'd been two months now since he had gotten back from China after the fight with Saffron and now Ranma was restless. He had gone through the fight countless of times since he had gotten back, even at the last wedding attempt that the household had thrown at him an Akane.

"Ranma!" It was Akane's voice calling out for him, yet he didn't respond right away, waiting until she was in view, she was on the ladder behind him. "Ranma!" she shouted again just as she peered her head over the rooftop. "Oh, there you are. Supper's almost ready. You coming?"

"Yeah. Gimme a few." Ranma turned to look at Akane with a half smile.

His main fiancée tilted her head off to the side before giving her entire body a shake, as if trying to snap out of something. "Don't be to late."

"Me? Late for food? Hah." the half smile turned to a grin before he turned away, the forced grin slipping from his face almost instantly.

They were both silent for a moment before Akane nodded ever so slightly before she slipped back down the ladder, walking quietly back to the main part of the household. She stopped just at the enterance, looking back towards the roof where Ranma stood, words almost coming to her lips before falling away, turning around and walking to where everyone else was.

"Sorry, 'Kane." Ranma said to himself as he continued to look at the setting sun, the battle with Saffron raging through his mind once more. A shake of his head and he hopped off the roof, landing on the walkway and walking back towards the main building where supper was waiting, the aroma of Kasumi's cooking wafting about the area.

It took only minutes for everyone to be seated around the table, everyone was eating quietly like they had been for the past couple of weeks. Not long after the wedding attempt, Ranma had put his foot down about all the chaos in the household and he wasn't putting up with it anymore. Pops of course still tried to here and there steal Ranma's food but that was nothing really all that big, sometimes it even took his mind off of Saffron and the weird things he'd been feeling since a couple days after they had gotten back. Even Akane's cooking had gotten better with more time to spend on it and not delaying with random interruptions from Shampoo crashing in, followed by Mousse or even poor Ryoga trying to attack Ranma for something he had done.

Ranma suddenly looked over at Akane, setting down his chopsticks as he did, though before he could say something Nabiki spoke up.

"What's wrong Saotome, you always finish your food." Nabiki just glanced over at Ranma.

"Jus' got a lot on my mind is all, Nabs." Ranma shrugged absently.

"Right." Nabiki just shook her head and went back to her meal.

"Anyway." Ranma spoke with a sigh and looked at Akane, "Can I talk to you in the dojo?"

It was then that everyone stopped eatting and turned to look at the two of them.

"Uhh...sure?" Akane was confused herself but nodded and looked at Ranma as they both got up, leaving the rest to eat.

Both Soun and Genma looked at each other as their children left the room, tears coming to Soun's eyes and a grin coming to Genma's lips. "Things are working out after all, 'eh Tendo?"

"Exactly Saotome." Soun responded in kind. "Oh my Akane's growing up right in front of my eyes." Tears welled up further as he smiled.

Nodoka and Kasumi each exchanged glances and nodded. "How wonderful." was all the eldest Tendo girl said.

Nabiki just rolled her eyes.

* * *

Ranma stood at one end up the dojo while Akane watched from the center of the room. She knew there was something eating at him, there had been for weeks, almost the full two months even. Yet she didn't know what to do to make it better for Ranma, he was hurting over something and she just couldn't seem to do a damn thing. Suddenly Ranma twirled and looked at her, opening his mouth and then closing it a few times before hanging his head to look at his hands. She looked to his hands as well, watching him clench and unclench his hands into fists over and over again.

"Look. Akane. U-u-uhm..." Ranma's usual eloquence spoke volumes and Akane crossed her arms waiting for him to at least try and get to the point. "...yeah. Uhm. Akane? I'm sorry." Ranma looked up and continued before she could ask. "I've been a fool..." he trailed off suddenly as Akane giggled.

"There's nothing wrong or new with that Ranma." Akane walked closer and looked up at him slightly. "Baka." she tapped his forehead a couple of times and smiled a little, a blush creeping to her face.

"I'm serious this time." Ranma half smiled himself, blushing a bit as well before taking a step around Akane and looking around the Dojo, still making and unmaking a fist with both his hands. "I should'a done this a long time back." He paused again and sighed. "Wish I had some water, this is easier as a girl..."

The youngest Tendo watched Ranma walk around and shook her head slightly. "Just get on with it Ranma, no need to take all night." she let loose a low sigh and tapped her foot impatiently.

"Right, yeah, anyway..." Ranma let loose a long breath and swallowed almost nervously. "It's, well..." again he trailed off, stopping his pacing and then looking square at Akane. "Saffron." he said simply after a moment.

"...Oh." Akane said, suddenly subdued as she herself thought about it. Kidnapped, nearly killed, some nights she still had nightmares about the whole ordeal. "I'd rather not talk about that, ever, Ranma." She turned to walk away and back to the main building, suddenly very tired.

"Wait, Akane." He dropped his hand down on her shoulder. "It's not like that." He spun her around to face him. "What I'm trying to say is...well, I should've done this a long time ago and what happened is proof of that." He placed his other hand on her shoulder and looked her square in the eye. "I think it's about time I start trainin' ya." He watched as Akane's eyes widened in shock. "Though, I ain't gonna be trainin' ya in hand-ta-hand."

That last comment made Akane narrow her eyes and glare up at Ranma. "What's that supposed to mean? I'm not good enough to train like that?" Her battle aura flaring as she jumped to a conclusion to quickly once again.

"Wait, wait, wait." The black haired teen backed up suddenly. "I mean it'll be better if ya train with weapons." He suddenly pointed to the mallet that had appeared in her hands as she was about to thrash him. Suitably, his financée stopped and stared a the weapon in her hands. "Look, don't take this the wrong way but let's go over a couple of things. Normally ya wouldn't be able to hit me even if I was the broad side of a barn." Ranma held up a hand to forestall being beaten around the Dojo with the mallet and went on. "Yet whenever ya have that mallet of yours I get beaten through walls even when I'm trying to dodge the same amount."

"That...actually makes sense you know." Akane thought about that for a moment and hefted the mallet in her hands a bit more, spinning it a couple of times.

"Of course it makes sense. I came up with the idea after all." A cocky grin plastered itself on Ranma's face only for a second before the mallet smashed him face first into the ground as if to prove his point. "S-s-see...?"

"Hmph." Akane looked down at him, watching Ranma's foot twitch before she stalked back to the enterance. "I've got some things I need to grab tomorrow then. Sunday is when we'll start."

Ranma nodded as he sat up. "Sure thing Akane. I need to go see the Old Ghoul about something too. I'll see you in the morning, gonna do a few things before I goto bed." He just watched as Akane left the room, closing his eyes as he felt that she was gone. "Never again." he finally muttered.

For the first time in a while Ranma decided to sit down and meditate, his mind still going over the fight with Saffron. Sure the Phoenix God could've been physically pummeled but the healing rate was astounding. _Nothing worked. I couldn't do anything to save Akane and it wasnt until she fell through the fire and I thought that she was going to die that I could do something. How did I do that? The staff couldn't have been the only part I can still feel the energy. Dammit Saffron you stupid bastard..._

Ranma's thoughts suddenly started to fade away, not thinking of anything as he suddenly started to relax. Letting his own Ki surface and wash over him as he finally started to meditate in earnest. The other power was surfacing and he could feel it intermigle with his Ki. There was something vaguely familiar about it, the feeling was stronger than the Chinese artifacts that Cologne had sometimes employed to get Ranma to marry Shampoo. What was this new sensation that somehow felt very old? So familiar and so right?

A single thought caressed it's way across Ranma's consiousness as he fell into a deeper meditation.

_Magic_.


	2. Chapter 1: Questions Part 1

It was the last day of school for the students of Furikan High and everyone was anticipating summer vacation. Most students were annoyed that they had a full day, but with the usual antics, no one was bored enough to even think about what they'd be doing once the school day had ended. It the actually a return to normal for the first time in a while and most of the students seemed to relax when Tatewaki Kuno went flying after expressing his undying love for the firey Akane Tendo. It'd been almost two months since that had happened and it seemed like Ranma and Akane were back to their usual selves.

By lunchtime Ranma had already transformed back and forth between his Girl-Type and normal on four seperate occasions. Of course since gym class wasn't until the afternoon, all of the boys cursed their own bad luck about the transformations while Ranma just cursed. During lunchtime Kuno once again tried to woo his beloved Akane just to get another boot to the face. It didn't stop him though as Ranma got hit by a splash of water from above, a girl having tripped and her cup of water gone flying so Kuno once again came back, this time to try his luck on the Pig-Tailed Goddess.

Queue the third boot and this time their upperclassman really went flying.

Of course, everyone had a good laugh at the moronic Kuno and everything seemed back to normal, especially once an explosion was heard and people noticed that Ryoga had somehow gotten lost and found his way to school. Everyone was pysched up for a fight, especially since Ranma was still a female and Ryoga usually took offense to that. However after the five minutes it took for The Lost Boy to wander around, still lost of course, he saw Ranma, annoyed and sitting next to Akane. The students watched on in anticipation, even Ukyo came out, preparing to pretend her Ran-chan but they were sorely disappointed as Ryoga just sat down and started to just chat with the two.

Suffice to say, the sole thought on most everyone's minds was _'What the hell?!?'_ Following the usual train of thought, tons of people went to Nabiki for information. Of course she would know, which she did, but this time she charged more than triple the usual going rate for information. Regardless of such, a lot of people paid, almost begrudingly at that, but they did pay and they found out what really happened. The girls almost wept and the boys looked at Ranma and Ryoga in almost a new light. Almost. Ranma was still fodder for cold water for their eyes to feast on and Ryoga was meant to be avoided unless they wanted some broken bones.

There was still about 10 minutes left for lunch when Ukyo joined in on the conversation, just small chatter about the last couple months. Ukyo offering up some food for the Jackass, Ranma Honey and Akane.

Students that continued to watch wondered if they were suddenly in some strange universe where left was right and the usual nonsense was actual sanity. Of course, that didn't last long. Kuno had to get in his last attempt to try and woo his two beloved. Ukyo herself was just sick from watching, Ranma was getting frustrated and Akane was starting to boil over. Suddenly out of the blue Kuno went airborne once again, this time due to the aid of Ryoga's fist in an uppercut.

"Hey...uhh, thanks Ryoga." Ranma murmured, sitting down to enjoy the last few moments of silence.

Wait. Ranma thanking someone? Ukyo's eyes just went wide.

"Yeah, that baka is really starting to annoy me." Akane sighed, not even turning a hair at Ranma's change in attitude. Of course, she'd been living with him so that was to be expected.

"No problem." Ryoga snorted and shook his head opening his fist up to a clawed hand. "I never liked the guy anyway. Good seeing you two though...but I need to get going if I'm supposed to get to Akari's by tomorrow." His fangs gleamed in the grin he gave and he waved his umbrella in a wave as he started to wander off.

"Ryoga, wait." Ranma said, jumping up and following him a moment. She looked up and put a hand on her rival's shoulder. "Lemme walk ya to the gate so you don't get lost around school."

Wait. Ranma being nice to someone? Ukyo paled a little.

Ryoga made a non-commital noise and walked side by side with the red-haired Ranma towards the gate. Once they were out of view from Ukyo and Akane, the okonomiyaki chef turned to the other girl and stared for a moment. "What the hell is up with Ranma?"

Akane pulled her legs up, hugging them and resting her chin on her knees. "For the last while he's been...been thinking about that battle with Saffron. It's like he's been turning into a different person." She smiled sadly. "Would you believe he even offered to train me on how to fight better? I mean...I was so excited but..." she trailed off, not continuing to voice her opinions, shaking it away and trying to brighten up. Ukyo and her generally got along, when they weren't fighting over Ranma and they were both worried about him now. "Actually, I wanted to ask you for your help too."

Ukyo lifted an eyebrow. She gave it a quick thought. _I could tell her to go stuff it, if she fails out Ranma might dump her!_ Of course the smile that blossomed on her face from the thoughts gave Akane the completely wrong idea and the rival for Ranma's affection winced inwardly._ No. He'd hate me if I purposely did something like that_. "Sure Akane, I'd be glad to help. Though, I'm really only good with my spatulas." She jerked her thumb back to the huge one attatched to her back.

"Well it's either ask you or Shampoo and Mousse." Akane said blandly.

"Hah!" Ukyo snorted suddenly, trying to hold in the amusement. "Well the bimbo would try to kill you...again, but Duckboy might be a good idea."

Before Akane could respond, Ranma walked back, transformed back to normal with a little bit of steam rising from his soaked head. "Sorry for taking so long, had to take Por..."he trailed off, frowning and making an odd face before going on. "...Ryoga to the gates and face him in the proper direction twice." He shooks his head and looked at the school as the bell rang announcing the near end of lunch. "Might as well get this over with. English class. Ick."

As the three of them started back towards the main enterance, the intercomm blared with Principal Kuno's horrible accent coming in. "Da Big Kahuna be t'inkin' that da Kaeki be needin' some big fun ya? Today me be makin' a choice Kaeki. Ya be havin' a grand vacation startin' now!" They all stopped in shock before a rather large cheer rose from the entire student body. The Principal continued. "Now ya be gettin' on or da Kaeki be gettin' new haircuts from da Big Kahuna."

Before the announcement was done, Ranma turned on his heel. "That settles that. I'm outta here. I'm gonna go see the Old Ghoul, see you when I get home 'Kane. Later Ucchan!" With a minor crouch and a minor flash of Ki, Ranma was in the air, jumping from roof to roof away from the two girls.

"Later Ranma honey!" Ukyo called out, waving at the departing martial artist before looking at Akane. "Alright sugar, let's go grab the things you need."

Akane smiled and nodded. "Thanks Ukyo." They both looked at the school one last time, grinning before running off the school grounds getting past the gates before everyone else followed suit in a mass exodus.

* * *

Ranma sighed as he made his way to the Cat Cafe. _Do I really wanna do this?_ He asked himself in his own mind. _I s'pose it could be worse though._ the black haired teen just shook his head and turned the corner to walk down the street he needed to be on. It only took him a couple of moments to get to the Cafe and he walked in, looking around. It was fairly busy and Ranma had to wait a moment before Mousse was able to even greet him.

"Oh it's you." Mousse was never really happy to see Ranma, mainly because it meant watching Shampoo rub up against him. "What do _you_ want?"

"I'm here to see Cologne." Ranma shrugged. Mousse was taken aback slightly. Not the 'Old Ghoul'? Not the 'Old Prune'? Just Cologne? "I'll just wait for her right here."

"You'll be in the way." Mousse said after a moment. "Go sit down at the table you usually use and I'll go get her. You want anything to eat too?"

Ranma nodded, "Sure, a beef ramen if you don't mind."

Mousse shrugged in return and went to the back while Ranma sat down, he almost sat in a slump and sighed, still thinking things through again and he shook his head, looking up to see Cologne standing there on her wooden cane. "What can I help you with Son-In-Law?" there was a trace of dry humor in her voice as she looked at him, her eyes going over his face, noting the pensive look. "Don't worry, my great-grandchild is out on delivery. She won't be back for a while yet." She watched as Ranma seemed to deflate in relaxation and relief.

"I got some stuff I wanna talk with you about." The boy let out an explosive breath. "S'bout the battle with Saffron. Some things happened."

"I know most of the story, though mainly second hand from my great-grandchild and her fuzzy memory." Cologne continued to watch Ranma's face, the scowl that quickly appeared and disappeared did not bode well. "I'm assuming this is more about the actual fight with him and not the other minor details."

"Yeah. You know that staff I brought back? Well I think it did something to me when I used it." He shook his head. "O' course I didn't mind when it happened, but that's cause I needed to save Akane. I shouldn't have needed that stupid thing to save her, but I did and now there feels like there's something wrong with me."

"Wrong with you? Out with it child." Cologne actually sounded like she was concerned. It was strange and caught Ranma by surprise with the sudden vehmence of her voice.

"I keep going over the fight with Saffron wondering if I could've done something different. Something better." Ranma continued, ignoring what Cologne said, for a moment at least. His fist nearly slammed into the table but he held his angry in check and just put his fist there gently. "I've been having headaches. I keep hearing things, words whispered in my head...memories that aren't mine. Heh. I tried to rationalize that, but I haven't touched that damnedable staff since." Ranma's head shook and his voice dropped to a whisper. "I used the Hiryuu Shoten Ha several times in the fight, it did next to nothing against the bastard until I had the staff."

Ranma stopped, looking around the cafe before he leaned back in his chair, rocking it a little before closing his eyes and thinking. "The whole thing turned to ice, ya know? I couldn't get close to him after the first time. He was really pathetic and weak and I couldn't even get close enough to even throw a punch. But when I picked up Gekkaja...?"

"What did it look like Son-In-Law?" Cologne's interest was peaked.

"It was just an ordinary staff ya know?" Ranma paused, opening his eyes and then dropping the chair back down to look back at Cologne. "Well, no, is had a crescent moon on the end actually."

Before Cologne could same anything else Mousse came out and put the beef ramen in front of Ranma, eyeing the other martial artist for a moment and then looking back to Cologne with a shrug. The nearly blind weapons master went back to making and handing out food after a moment of pregnant silence.

"Another thing..." Ranma looked up while breaking his chopsticks absently, his blue eyes finding Cologne. "Does the name Selene ring any bells?"

* * *

Notes from the author:

Please pardon any spelling and grammatical errors, I'm not getting anyone to read this stuff over and I'm using Wordpad to type everything up. I'm pretty sure that it's fairly obvious on where I'm going with this. The next chapter will start with said obviousness and then switch back to our main hero before it gets concluded. Admittedly most of the stuff from chapter 2 was going to be a part of chapter 1 but I figured it'd be better to post smaller and faster 'chapters' than it would be to post long ones everyone once in a while.

If I get enough people to choose one or the other, I'll go with whatever the majority is. I hope you enjoy reading this as I have been writing it.


	3. Chapter 2: Questions Part 2

Ranma tensed after asking about the name of Selene. It seemed vaguely familiar. Well, more than vague but he just couldn't place the damn name. He didn't know anyone with that name unless it was from his childhood, then Pops would have some serious answering to do when he got home. However the tenseness came from the sudden influx of energy outside of the Cat Cafe. Multiple sources, powerful. He could even tell that one was being subdued, rather forcibly by a great amount too. All of a sudden three of the sources almost completely disappeared, as if completely shut down. They were so close by that he could feel them and when he looked to Cologne, Ranma realized that she too could feel the sensation. Again it felt just like that name. Familiar, so very familiar, but the martial artist could simply not place it and it was really starting to bother him.

Cologne however decided to go on with their conversation. She knew what magic felt like after all and if this magic was going to be a threat they individuals would have done something about it already. "I am familiar with the name child. Old scrolls make mention of it quite a lot. It's thrown about in the mytholgical circles as well. Quite intriguing that you would bring that up while mentioning that staff Gekkaja."

"How so?" Ranma was really confused, his headache was back and now it was getting worse to boot.

"Well." Cologne pauses, a frown crossing her withered face as she narrowed her eyes. Before she could go on, those three magical signatures she had felt diminish had actually walked right into the Cat Cafe. "Hold on Son-In-Law, let's see what they want."

Ranma nodded putting his chopsticks over the bowl of ramen and looking at the three that walked in. One was a tall tanned woman with long green hair, despite being at the back where he usually sat he could still make out her red eyes from there, much like whatever that feeling she was giving off, she looked familiar. That wasn't the only thing either, the other two also looked familar, despite being obviously younger than the woman. The other two were teens, probably around his own age. One had blue hair in a rather short cut and she seemed to be looking around at every single person nearest her as if trying to find someone. Her blue eyes were calculating and despite Ranma getting the weakest feeling from her he could tell she was just as dangerous, if only for other reasons. The third girl was leading them, a blonde with hair done up in odango and the feeling she gave off was really weirding Ranma out. It was familair, vague and there, just like everything else, and her eyes, blue like the second but of a different shade. _More like my own,_ Ranma mused. Out of the three she looked like she didn't have a care in the world and seemed to be paying more attention to the food everyone was eating. There was something else, something hidden but Ranma couldn't quite find it.

Cologne pretty much had the exact same feelings, there was also something tugging at her own memories as she stood there on her cane. Sudden realization came to her and she stared at the older woman. "It cannot be..."

"What?" Ranma asked, suddenly a bit more alert, almost nothing got to her like this.

"That woman, I met her over a Century ago, nothing has changed." Cologne hissed below her breath.

Ranma blinked a few times, trying to wrap his mind around that as the blue haired one and the one Cologne knew stepped up to them. The blonde was actually sitting down and ordering food from Mousse. If one of them were this carefree, maybe it wouldn't lead to a fight? "I don't understand." He frowned suddenly. "How's that even possible?"

"Don't worry about it, Son-In-Law." Cologne murmured under her breath and looked to the two before them. "How may I help you ladies today?"

"We were looking for someone, perhaps you could help us?" the blue haired girl said with a pleasant smile.

"Well, many customers come in, we're quite busy most of the time. Perhaps you could describe the person you're looking for?" Cologne almost had a mischevious glint in her eyes. She knew exactly whom they were looking for, the boy was shrugging and eating his ramen right beside them after all.

"We're not quite sure what they look like actually." The green haired woman cut in and Cologne looked up at her, just looking at her mildly. "On the other hand...do I know you?" She blinked and frowned a little, trying to remember.

"Oh you do remember?" Cologne grinned faintly, a chuckle breathing past her lips. "It has been about one hundred years, Setsuna-san. The last we saw of each other was in China."

The woman named Setsuna snapped her fingers suddenly. "I knew it! I knew that I heard of Jusenkyo before."

Suddenly the three turned to look at Ranma whom spluttered and started coughing, choking slightly on his ramen after the sudden mention of Jusenkyo. The blue hair girl looked back between Setsuna and Cologne for a moment. "Wait, a hundred years..." she trailed off a moment and stared at Cologne for a moment who just smiled.

Meanwhile Mousse had handed the blonde her shrimp ramen.

_

* * *

__A couple hours ealier in Minato_:

Eight teenagers, two cats and one adult all sat about in various spots around a decent sized bedroom. It was early afternoon on a Saturday, the last day of school had ended and it was now summer vacation so they all had gathered at the local temple where one of them lived. The adult, Setsuna Meiou sat in a chair off to one corner sipping some green tea, watching the teenagers, for the most part discuss random things. The two eldest teens, Haruka Tenoh and Michiru Kaioh sat off to the otherside of the room leaning against each other while the youngest, Hotaru Tomoe, sat near them playing with the black Cat, Luna. The remaining five teens, Usagi Tsukino, Ami Mizuno, Makoto Kino, Rei Hino, and Minako Aino, sat around the table with the white cat, Artemis sitting besides Minako.

All of these girls were the Sailor Senshi, the Pretty Guardians of Love and Justice and at the moment the majority of them were shaking their heads at the seemingly vulgar display of Usagi as she gorged herself on cupcakes. Despite being pretty soldiers, what Usagi was doing was surely not.

"Give it a rest odango-baka." Rei said, annoyed, pulling the plate away from the blonde.

"But Reeeeiiii..." the blonde suddenly complained and was suddenly silenced by glares coming in from everyone at the high pitch of her voice. "Fine. Meanies." she suddenly pouted.

Ami shook her head a second time and coughed into her fist before dropping a few pieces of paper on the table. "This is all the informaiton I could gather and work with. The energy all of us felt was originating from China." Stopping so that everyone could ask the same obvious question.

"China?" Both Makoto and Minako asked simultaneously, the brunette looked at the second blonde and they both laughed.

"Where abouts in China, Ami?" Setsuna suddenly asked from over the rim of her uplifted tea. The mysterious woman suddenly interested in the answer. Of course that didn't stop her one bit from continuing her drink.

The blue haired girl grimaced slightly. "Finding that out is why it took me so long. A place called Jusenkyo, The Cursed Springs." With that she pulled out a pamphlet in chinese and dropped it on the rest of the papers. "Yet they have a tour brochure. It made me feel a little silly after I found that out."

"Jusenkyo...Jusenkyo..." Setstuna murmured, lost in though, the others turning and looking at her before they all shrugged and went back to their conversation, all the while the green haired woman continued to mutter to herself, where else had she heard of that place...?

"Anyway. What about last night, Ami?" This time it was Michiru, the aqua haired girl that leaned against her blonde and short haired girlfriend Haruka. "The energy was nowhere near as strong but it was a lot closer."

"Yeah, a lot closer. I had the Mercury computer scanning for it and it was closer than we even realized." Ami finished up, pulling one of the slips of paper up for everyone to see outside of Setsuna whom was behind her. "Right here in Tokyo and not even that far away either."

This drew a frown on most of the other girls until Haruka asked the obvious question since she was more occupied with watching Hotaru and Luna despite how important the conversation was. "Where in Tokyo? It couldn't've been that far then, it seemed more like the energy was just seeping out, not exploding like it had from China."

"Right. Actually it's in the Nerima on the other side of Shinjuku from us here in Minato" Ami concluded finally and then blinked as Minako reacted rather suddenly to when she had mentioned Nerima.

"Nerima? Seriously. Oh man..." Minako shook her head and sighed, looking down at Artemis and petting him absently. "There's some crazy things that happen over there." The interest from everyone prompted her to continue. "Look. You all remember back when we were dealing with the Black Moon Clan?" At the various nods she went on. "At the same time, the reports of some pretty nasty _things_ reported there yet they were dealt with rather quickly."

"By whom? We were all busy over here." Usagi frowned, actually paying attention to the conversation now and not the plate of cupcakes.

"Usagi, don't think for once that we're the only protectors around." Setsuna suddenly added, back in the here and now and no longer lost in her thoughts. "Chaos runs rampant in Nerima. No not _that_ Chaos Usagi." she prompted at the sudden look of fear on the girl's face. "I mean the normal random happenstance. It's usually caused by and dealt with in house by the same people." Of course she would have that information. Setsuna continued after a moment. "Where as we have the Sailor Senshi here in Minato, over in Nerima they've got powerful martial artists."

"How's that supposed to make that big of a difference? We've got magical powers so we can deal with youma and the like." Usagi asked another question, the other girls thinking it very odd but going with the flow and Haruka took up the flow from there.

"Can you take Mako-chan in a fist fight?" the older girl grinned at the two of them.

"Of course n....ooooh." Sudden realization dawned on Usagi's face but was ruined rather quickly with a frown. "That doesn't really explain much you know."

Makoto followed up the statement with a sigh of her own. She knew that Haruka and herself were the two best 'fighters' of the group, but at the same time that was woefully inadequate compared to actual martial arts, thankfully their magic made up for it. "Usagi. A trained martial artist can use their Ki like we can use our Magic. In some cases either or could be stronger."

"Ki?"

Almost everyone facepalmed at the exact same moment before Ami shook her head.

"Pure Lifeforce, Usagi. Though it doesn't sound plausible to me."

"Isn't that...well, dangerous?" Usagi continued to frown and looked over to the fighters of the group, both of them shrugged as they never used their Ki, prefering to rely on magic, then she looked to Setsuna who made a back and forth motion with her hand.

"Yes and no." her red eyes narrowed as she thought about it. "With ample training your Ki, much like anything else, will get better. Though over use of it can end up causing you to pass out at best...killing you outright at worst." Setsuna thought for a moment, it seemed like everyone was holding their breath for her to go on. "Training it, much like anything else can improve how much you use, how well you use it and various other things. There are other factors as well and it can be manipulated much like our magic can. Of course we just get a little exausted when we run out of magic." It was the safer alternative, sure.

"Yep. Which means these crazy people over in Nerima have dealt with youma and the like themselves, up close and personal, with their fists." Minako pointed out finally. "I actually went over there one day just to check it out. I saw some of the strangest things too and some of the boys were just dreamy!" Of course that's what she'd've paid attention to. "Why don't we go check it out today?" Minako continued.

"I don't think it's that good of an idea." Ami spoke up reluctantly. "We need more information. Just waltzing in could spell some trouble. I mean, what if it's a trap?"

Makoto cracked her knuckles then and a wicked grin plastered itself on her face. "Then we spring it and kick their asses of course."

"Besides," Usagi suddenly chirped, "if they're allies it'll be easier to deal with whatever threats we may face in the future." She nodded, the others, for the most part, agreeing with her, especially Rei.

"She's right you know. Look what happened with Galactica." Rei paused and everyone grimaced. "Sure she was dealt with and then Chaos was beaten back but if we had more help none of those horrible things might've happened. Especially if that amount of energy from two months ago is the peak."

"Rei is right." Hotaru suddenly spoke up from where she was next to Luna. "The power might've been higher than the Princess...but it felt so cold..." the youngest teen shivered, looking afraid for a moment. "A soulless world of ice..." she murmured, shivering again and moving closer to Haruka and Michiru leaving Luna to wander over to the table.

"Well, I think we should at least check it out." Luna spoke finally, looking over to Artemis.

"The sooner the better, I think." The white feline nodded in agreement and looked to the girls around the table. "Be careful though. As mentioned, this place can be very dangerous if not even half of the stories are true." Artemis looked at Ami specifically. "You're going to have to go regardless due to your Mercury Computer, it'll be able to analyze everything better up close."

"I know. It's just that I don't think it's a good idea." Ami shrugged slightly.

"Well, we won't know until we get there and find out." Setsuna said absently, almost teasingly. Of course she could easily go check things out, but where would the fun in that be? "Meet in Nerima in two hours then." She then looked pointedly at Usagi. "You better not be late."

Usagi gulped and everyone laughed.

* * *

Nine Sailor Senshi were just reaching the outskirts of Nerima when the one called Sailor Mercury called for a small halt. They all stopped, standing on one of the taller skyscrapers just to avoid the attention that they'd normally be given if they were closer to ground level. Of course they were near Nerima and people wouldn't give them much of a second glance but none of them actually knew that other than Pluto, but she kept quiet on the matter.

"I'm picking up traces of the energy further Northwest from here." Mercury said, pulling out her Mercury Computer and tapping the side of her tiara to bring out her visor to calculate distances. "About five minutes if we take our time."

"Well, we should keep going then." Sailor Moon said with the tiniest bit of authority.

Neptune spoke up next, a hand running through her hair as she looked down the side of the skyscraper. "Should we go in as civilians or transformed?"

"Excellent question. What do you think Your Highness?" Mars half teased, half asked seriously.

"Hmm..." Moon frowned, trying to give it some serious thought when Saturn took a step forward. "Go on Saturn. if you've got an ideas, I'd love to hear them."

The tiniest and the quietest of the Senshi nodded and spoke softly. "Mayb we should...split up?"

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Jupiter added suddenly, grinning a little at the same time. "A few of us go in as normal and look for whomever it is, see if we can get some questions answered and the rest of us hang back in case it's a trap."

Moon nodded, giving it a moment's thought before speaking. "Alright. Mercury, Pluto and I will go in normally. The rest of you as backup. Stagger your formation in a circle around where ever it is we're going in case it is a trap and the culprit tries to escape." Amazingly enough, she was actually sounding like a rather proficient leader. Of course after the last battle they had, it was time she started to grow up after all. "Jupiter, you'll be covering the rear. Uranus you're covering the front.

Uranus cracked her knuckles and grinned while the others nodded in approval. Venus however did have a question. "Why chose like that?"

Moon shrugged slightly. "Mercury'll be able to analyze the situation on the inside easier, and with Pluto's knowledge will be useful...and she can bug us out if things really turn bad. That and I won't send someone where I won't go. Not anymore." She shook her head sadly, turning and looking towards the horizon of their destination.

"There's hope for you yet then Princess." Pluto said as she stepped up and put her hand on Moon's shoulder. "Your thinking is sound and it's what I'd've chosen to do too."

The blonde haired Senshi smiled and nodded, looking back at Pluto and then to Saturn. "One last thing. You're covering the entire bit of the circle. Just in case."

"I understand." Was all Saturn said in response while staying near Neptune for the most part.

"Alright everyone. Let's go!" Sailor Moon shouted and they all jumped off the skyscraper, using their magic to launch themselves off to the direction that Mercury gave them.

It took just under four minutes for the Senshi to reach their destination, all of them having found a place to hide when the three Senshi transformed back to normal so they wouldn't look overly suspicious. Usagi stood with Setsuna and Ami and nodded at her friends both the Outers and Inners. Pluto gave them a thumbs up and they walked out into the crowd while the still transformed Senshi got into their own positions. It took them another minute to get into position and the three of them found theirselves outside of a resturant that was called the Cat Cafe.

"Odd name, don't you think?" Ami asked, Setsuna shrugged then they both looked at Usagi whom was nearly drooling from the smell of ramen from the inside. There went the 'Great Leader' vibe.

"It smells _so good_." Usagi breathed in deeply. Yep. Totally gone.

"We're here for a reason Usagi. Don't get sidetracked by food." Setsuna nearly hissed at the blonde and gave her a gentle push. "Let's go in and hope we find whom or what we're looking for."

"Fine. You're starting to sound like Rei." Usagi said grumpily.

"I'm standing in for her to get you to pay attention." Setsuna responded mirthlessly causing her inteded target to stick her tongue out and Ami to giggle. "Come on now, we'll start attracting attention by standing out here."

"Fine, fine...I hope this isn't a trap. I'm starving." Usagi grinned and waltzed right in.

Alas. Gone. Dead and buried. Oh well. Maybe another day it'll last longer than five minutes.

* * *

_Presently at the Cat Cafe_:

It was strange. Setsuna and Cologne were involved in small talk. Various topics back and forth chattered like they were old school-girl friends. Ami was watching Ranma and he found the attention to be nervous. _I feel like I'm being eyed up as a piece of meat at the market...though there's nothing unusual about that..._Ranma swallowed suddenly, looking up at Setsuna out of the corner of his eye before going back to his ramen, finishing it up in seconds and them tapping Cologne's shoulder with his free hand. "I'll talk to you about this later. I gotta go. Akane's probably lookin' for me." Before he could get up however, Cologne tapped him with her stick and he was forced back into his chair.

"One moment Son-In-Law. I want you to show me what you're talking about, outside." Cologne motioned to the back door and looked at Ami and Setsuna. "I'm sure these ladies would like to see as well. Their friend however seems to be a slight be pre-occupied." She let out a cackle and bounded to the door on her stick. The aformentioned Usagi was stuffing her face on her third bowl of shrimp ramen.

He scowled in response as he went to the door. "You sure that's a good idea ya old gh---OW! Why'd you have to go and hit me for?" Ranma spluttered and grumbled.

"You were doing so good too. Your headache going away Son-in-Law?" Cologne asked, her voice carrying some interest.

"Hey, now that ya mention it..." Ranma blinked a couple of times. "Wonder why that is." He mused a little and shook his head. "Alright. Fine, let's go and I'll show you what I mean. Still don't like it though." He glanced warily at Setsuna and Ami before walking out the back door.

A moment later Ranma, Setsuna, Cologne and Ami were all standing out in the back. Ami glanced around, though both Ranma and Cologne watched until the girl seemed to relax a little, her gaze now riveting on Ranma. Of course the two from Nerima caught sight of the girl in the fuku but paid her no heed, she was obviously with them, the signature felt about right.

"Before you show us, why didn't you goto Happosai?" The question coming from Cologne was innocent enough, at least to the outsiders since they didn't know the old lecher. "He is the Master of your own sch---oh my..." she breathed a surprised gasp as she hopped back a step.

The three of them suddenly felt a chill and they were all paying close attention to Ranma, though Setsuna and Ami were paying closer attention to other things about Ranma. The sudden spike in their senses alerted them to what they were looking for but the what they weren't prepared for was the absolute sensation of what happened. Ami peered closer and her eyes widened at what she saw. _His eyes are dead!_ There was no emotion coming from the boy and then realized that it was getting even colder. The Soul of Ice involved cold Ki to empower the Hiryu Shoten Ha, it was a basic conflict between normal Ki that raised temperature slightly and it's own lowered temperature, but the energy coming off of Ranma was lower, much lower. To be precise, it was summer. The middle of July, it was a hot day out, not the hottest, but it was still up there. Yet the air around the black haired martial artist was cold and it was if ice particles were being formed in the air, they could even see their own breath. It was a huge and noticable change, but the spike in energy, _magical energy_, was so mind numbingly different up close. Ice had even started to form at Ranma's feet, growing out from where he stood.

"I don't trust him." Ranma bit out, not even realizing the cold he had caused and then repeated himself. "I do not trust him at all. I do not respect him. Nor would I have anything to do with him if I could."

Cologne chuckled softly and shook her head at that. So the boy trusted her more than Happi? "Well, one could trust someone saying that the Sun would rise in the opposite direction more than they could trust that old fool."

Suddenly Ami nodded, Jupiter of course would be watching and this would've been relayed to the rest of the Senshi. Sestuna though tilted her head and watched, her eyes narrowing in thought before looking at Ami and raising the oddest of questions. "But why a male?" Setsuna frowned and shook head head. "That's the part I can't understand..."

It was of course at that precise point when Setsuna trailed off that Ranma's bad luck decided to kick in. As with the others with a Jusenkyo curse they attracted random cold water and this was no exception. If it wasn't for the Soul of Ice, nothing would have even happened, but since it was so powerful at that moment the water that came flying out of the blue from above had turned from maybe warm to definitely cold. The transformation was just as sudden as usual and both Ami and Setsuna stared in wonder as the sole male before them went from a broad, muscular, and black haired boy to a petite, flexible, busty redheaded girl. At the very same instant, the magical energy from Ranma went 'shooting through the roof' as it were. Setsuna's eyes widened even further as she felt the absolute familiarity of the magic.

However, before they could do anything, the area was rocked by a large explosion, it seemed that the stories that Minako had mentioned had some merit after all. Setsuna nodded slightly, knowing that they were waiting for permission to go check things out, it still might've been a trap after all.

"Well, speak of the devil..." Cologne muttered and turned from Ranma to Setsuna. "If you'll excuse me, I have a resturant to look after for a few moments. Son-In-Law, if you would please." Cologne nodded and bounced back into the Cat Cafe.

The girls turned back to Ranma, confused for a moment and then blinked as they saw the grimace on his...no, her lips. "I'll deal with the Old Leech." Even her voice was so very different! "No point in girls getting hurt in something like this." She turned on her heel, took a small run in the short distance and jumped up onto the roof. She was out of sight almost instantly. Out of earshot before she could hear Cologne cackle madly from the door.

"Poor boy doesn't get it." She shook her head while laughing, turning to look at Setsuna and if something even more incredible came to her she laughed even harder. "You two may as well take your friend and go on ahead, I'll be following shortly. This seems like it will be amusing." Another faint chuckle as she headed back inside.

Ami stood there, almost, well, shocked; flabbergasted even. She continued to stand there, trying to take in the events that happened until she felt a tug on her shoulder. "Let's go grab Usagi and transform." They both nodded, going back into the Cat Cafe, Cologne was giving some sort of announcement while people were leaving in a little bit of a hurry and Usagi was paying for her food. Six bowls in all.

Six.

Bottomless pit much?

"Hurry up, Usagi." Setsuna hissed. "There might've been a youma attack."

"Why do you think I'm paying and not eating some more?" Usagi grumbled. "Was that what the explosion was? It's not a trap is it?"

"We don't know." Ami responded, "We did find what we were looking for though. I think. Anyway. Let's go."

The three of them left, rather hurredly and started to run out of sight as soon as they could, leaving Cologne to watch them from the enterance and laugh a little again.

"Mousse. It seems like we might be closing up for a little bit. Wait for my great-grandchild to get back and then follow me. We may just get to see something interesting today." Cologne had a grin plastered on her face as she closed the door behind her and hopped off to where the explosion had come from.

* * *

Notes from the author:

And that there is the rest of the chapter that I was going to add last time, with a few updates. I figure it made for a better secondary chapter. Also, had to upload it a second time due to a few edits. Thank you for your patience and I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing.


	4. Chapter 3: Questions Final Part

The middle of the street had been turned into a small crater, ground zero of the explosion from moments ealier was still smoking ever so slightly. Most of the Senshi had already appeared on the scene and had finally garnered some people watching them, however only because they were new on the scene. However once the sight of the girls in sailor fukus wore off, only people stayed to marvel their looks.

"What happened here?" Venus asked after a moment, looking around, there were no answers from the other Senshi and some of the crowd just shrugged.

The Senshi obviously weren't used to dealing with this kind of thing, normally when there's an explosion, there's screams for help and a monster sticking around to cause more problems. Not just a random crater with no clues. "Agh, this makes no sense." Jupiter growled. Before she could go on though, a single damp-haired red-head jumped down and walked through the entire circle of Senshi without a word. "Hey, watch it, this could be dangerous." Jupiter said and frowned slightly, the girl looked slightly familiar.

Of course, she didn't see the transformation from where she was standing.

Ranma just eyed the girl and shook her head, "Yeah, like anything around here is gonna be a danger to me." the girl snorted, rather unladylike really, and hopped down to the middle of the crater. "Figures it was the Old Leech." Kneeling down, she pressed her fingers where it was still hot for a second and then looked up and around in a couple of directions before narrowing her eyes and looking back at the Senshi. "All of ya should get lost before ya get hurt. Those silly outfits aren't gonna do nothin'."

This didn't sit to well with any of them, especially Uranus and Mars, their anger starting to show. "Calm down." Neptune snapped, turning to the red-head girl in the crater. "We deal with things like this on a regular basis Miss."

"I ain't no Miss!" Ranma shot back vehemently. "I'm a g...oh forget it. I'm out of here." She grumbled as she pushed herself to her feet, using a little bit of her ki and the new energy she had and launchered herself into the air towards the nearest building and hopped out of sight almost instantly.

It took a moment for that to register to most of them. A regular girl just launched herself into the air? Suddenly they realized that they all felt it, wasn't that..?

Saturn's gasp broke the silence of thought as she proceeded to yell, "It's her! Oh...welcome back Pluto-mama." The youngest Senshi switched from surprised to enjoyed.

The three remaining Senshi had appeared on the scene and they all looked around at each other and then everyone glanced at their leader, Sailor Moon. The girl nodded simply and they all jumped up to chase Ranma. Unnoticed behind them, Cologne bounced along, following with a smile on her face.

"I'll beat him to death. I swear it. I'll beat him senseless." Ranma told herself aloud. "When I catch him, he's mine."

She was so focused on following Happosai's ki that he barely noticed all the Senshi following behind him, trying to keep up. Well, less following and more so trying to chase it seemed to her. To the Senshi though, they realized they were almost all barely able to keep pace with the girl in front of them and Mercury at the back of the pack was surprised when the old owner of the Cat Cafe had caught up with them.

"My, this seems rather exciting afterall." Cologne cackled, looking at the girl whom resembled the one back at the Cat Cafe. "I'd never thought more magical girls would be after Son-In-Law."

Mercury smiled somewhat, always the polite girl and decided to keep the conversation going while tapping away at her computer, the visor also up. "Well we're not exactly after him...her...? Per se." She smiled some more. "We just want to ask her some questions about the powers she's using."

"Ah, her newfound magic you mean? Rather intriguing that. I can help with that a little I suppose." She eyed the girl for a moment and started to pick up the speed. "You'll have to keep up to get some answers though." Cologne cackled and grinned and started to pounce on her stick, rooftop to rooftop even faster, leaving Mercury at the back of the pack.

She quickly hopped ahead of Neptune and Saturn, then Mars, giving each a smile in turn. She kept pace with Pluto and Uranus at the middle of the group. "I suppose I could trade information though."

Uranus raised an eyebrow, wondering who the old lady was and why she was being so familiar, of course the statement that left Pluto's lips caused to her to become even more confused. "Of course Cologne-chan. The information offered to Mercury back there for...?" Pluto smiled absently.

"Mercury, hmm? I never got her name back at the Cafe. Well, just generalized knowledge, especially what you've been doing for the past while, Setsuna-san." Cologne kept hoping and keeping pace, looking ahead at Ranma. "Oh my, looks like we'll be there soon."

"Hm, this is a bit further than I expected really. Also, Pluto while I'm like this if you don't mind." Pluto smirked a little and watched Ranma stopped several hundred feet ahead.

"Of course, Pluto. Though, if you want to ask questions, next time I suggest you don't come primed with weapons." Cologne looked at the other Senshi quickly and then back to Pluto as they started to slow down, "We thought you were a threat at first. Magic doesn't show up in Nermia that often and when it does, it's almost always bad. Please take that to heart. Son-In-Law has very little patience lately."

"Son-In-Law? What's a boy supposed to be able to do to us?" Uranus snorted.

Cologne's eyes narrowed a moment at Uranus, conteplating that answer before she motioned with her hand to where they were headed. "You'll see. Of course this will be a small demonstration. Son-In-Law holds back in a civil setting. However, make no mistake, what must be done will be done." The last few words were quieter, but they had all reached the same area and Jupiter had been listening in on the conversation as well.

"Admittedly," the brunette added, "we thought we'd be walking into a trap as well."

Cologne blinked atop her walking stick before laughing. "Ah, yes, I agree child. I must confess, it really was a wide idea, what with this being Nerima and all."

She left them to puzzle out that statement as she hopped up to Ranma, watching the proceedings going on in the empty parking lot.

"You know, I hope Akane doesn't see this, she would flip." Ranma half commented once Cologne was standing beside her. "She'd jump to a wrong conclusion since I'm surrounded by girls." The red-head shuddered and looked down from his perch, his eyes going cold for a moment.

Indeed, it was Happosai, making a mess out of the parking lot, bouncing around and laughing madly, a bag on his shoulders, stuff full of the usual no doubt, what was unexpected to see was Pantyhose Taro swinging madly at the old midget. Taro's transformed strength was obviously enough to crush the cement as he continued to chase after Happosai in circles, yelling in a nonsensical rage. "Didn't expect to see Pantyhose-guy here though." Sure Taro had tried to kill him on more than a couple occasions but the guy just wanted a real name after all. "Why he doesn't just go by Taro is beyond me."

The Senshi had come up behind Ranma and stared down at the situation, they took a few steps back and nodded to each other when Moon spoke up. "We need to stop that beast before he harms anyone." Her fist slammed into her open palm. "Ready girls?"

"I wouldn't do that if you know what's good for ya." Ranma intervened before any of the Senshi could jump down to join the fray, intent on protecting the poor old man that was barely dodging to save his life. "Ya wouldn't last a minute against either of them." She shrugged and looked back over her shoulder, disdain falling on her face. "Besides, the little midget deserves everything he gets."

Moon was shocked. The girl was defending a monster? Of course she totally ignored the last part and started to build into a speech. "Youma should be destroyed and civilians should be protected!" The declaration was loud and clear and the majority of the girls nodded in agreement. The only one who didn't nod was Pluto. The green haired Senshi in black just merely watched and didn't say a thing. Before she could continue with her speech, the glare from Ranma caught her off guard.

"So, jus' cause we're cursed, you wanna destroy us?" She walked closer to Moon and glared up at her with a sneer. "Sayin' we ain't human, is that it? Huh? What's next, after you kill him you gonna kill me too?"

At first Sailor Moon was taken aback by the smaller girl but as Ranma's voice raised itself in ire Moon was aghast and the other Senshi were now confused. Why would they kill a human? Pluto just watching took a step closer and nods to herself, coming to the original conclusion she had, finally voicing it. "Jusenkyo?"

Ranma nodded, taking a step back from the trembling Sailor Moon, jerking a thumb at her own chest. "Cursed Spring of Drowned Girl. Panty-boy down there fell into the Cursed Spring of Drowned Yeti Riding Ox While Holding Crane and Eel...then went back and took a dip into Cursed Spring of Drowned Octopus, sort of."

"Wait. Drowned Octopus?" Venus asked, surpressing a giggle.

"Ya got me." Ranma rejoined, smirking a little herself.

"How do these curses work?" Mercury finally asked, even though she had seen the water ealier, she hadn't actually understood what it meant.

"Water Temperature." Ranma said flatly, "Y'see..." before she could continue however, Pantyhose Taro smacked Happosai with one of his tentacles and sent him careening through a wall. "Ugh. Tell you a bit." Ranma swore under her breath, wishing she had some water. "Then again, I guess I'm harder to hit like this..." she mused and took a step forward and jumped into the air. The best way to deal with Taro was to get him while he wasn't paying attention.

Of course, the original fight had restarted, Happosai ever so slightly annoyed now that his silky-darlings had been dirtied when he crashed through the wall and this time he actually went after Taro, deflecting the tentacles with his pipe and smacking the bull on his nose. They were both two ingrossed in each other to notice Ranma coming down. The girl, not being as strong as she could have been used the inertia from her falling to bash her heel in a dropping kick into the back of Pantyhose Taro's transformed neck, sending him into the ground, stunned. Using the bull's neck as leverage, she jumped into a spin and used her fist to smash Happosai into the ground. Like usual, the old perv bounced and as Ranma bounced, she spun around and gave the midget a roundhouse kick directly to his face, launching him back towards the hole he had made when Pantyhose Taro just threw him through.

Up on the roof, the watchers blinked in surprise. "Well, that was sudden." Mars remarked. "Over already? You sure we couldn't have done that ourselves?"

"Hush and watch child, this is far from over. Neither are out of this little fight quite yet." Cologne said harshly, her eyes narrowing. "Let's see how Son-In-Law fights now."

"...Wait? Son-In-Law? Her?" Uranus said shocked, remembering what Cologne said moments before. "I...but...what?"

"She did just explain before she jumped down there Uranus." Pluto said. "Jusenkyo curses change your bodily appearance, but they do not change your mind." _Or at least as far as I remember_.

Their conversation was interrupted suddenly by a cry of "Ranma my boy!" They all watched as the old man bounced out of the hole, covered in lingerie and launched himself at the chest of Ranma's female form, clinging and rubbing up lovingly.

"GET OFF ME YOU OLD FREAK!" Ranma screamed as she punched Happosai off of her chest, the old man whimpering, but instead of Ranma kicking him once again, she jumped up, doing splits in the air and using the fist that had just tried to hit her from behind as a push off point. Flipping in the air and with a single wirl, Ranma landed several feet away from an enraged Pantyhose Taro. "That took ahwhile, Taro. You're getting slower." She grinned at the monstrosity before her.

The large minotaur form of Pantyhose Taro make a growling noise, his eyes narrowing in anger and then, combined with a sneer, he took a couple steps back, dropping into a stance that relied on his brute strength.

"The first time we fought, I needed everyone elses help to take you down. That was before." Ranma's blue eyes narrowed as she dropped her, bending slightly to make an even smaller target. "I'm giving you one chance to get out of town Taro." Girl-Type Ranma's voice dropped and was hard as ice. "Or else."

Pantyhose Taro in all his transformed glory simply sneered and launched himself at Ranma, a punch directed at the girl's face. Of course the attack wouldn't work, and he wasn't surprised to see the girl using his fist as a launching point to get a little ways away. A growled lowly and lowered his head to charge.

"Pttttpht!" Ranma stuck her tongue out and started to laughing. "Can't hit me, can't hit me!"

Up on the building the Senshi stared in surprise. "Is...she doing what I think she's doing?" Venus asked, just staring in bemused confusion.

"Mocking him? Oh yes. Watch and you might get a show. Isn't that right Happi?" Cologne said, dropping from her stick and thwacking the old pervert on the head before he could stare up the skirts of the Senshi.

The small old letch had climbed up behind them, and the girls reacted with surprise when the old woman's hopping stick suddenly lunged out, though it was only a tap and the recipient just grinned foolishly. "Honestly, I've been wanting to see what he's been skirting around the last while so I called Taro from from China, if he could beat me, or Ranma when he showed up, I'd give the young lout a new name."

"Ah, you were in the middle of your usual routine when he showed up?" Cologne asked, threatening to smack him again, turning an eye back to Ranma and Taro as the redhead continued to egg on the Yeti with blatant mockeries.

"Ah, nope. I was waiting for him. All in my plans you old biddy." Happosai grinned, almost mercilessly. "Though, I'll admit I got distracted when you all showed up. I just can't help looking at a pretty lady...especially several of them." His eyes grew wide as he stared up at the, mostly younger, females around him. Of course at the same time he took a crack to the skull.

"Come on Taro! You're not this slow are you?" Ranma called from down on the street, evading not only the punches but the tentacles as well. "I'm not even using my feet, come on you big wuss!"

"Wonder if he's gonna fall for it." Happosai mused, leaning down over the railing. "Taro's not that dumb."

Uranus blinked, narrowing her eyes down at the fight. "Wait, is that girl leading that thing into a spiral?" The blonde blinked a few times, looking at the rest.

"What it looks like to me, it's easier to tell up here though." Jupiter responded and looked to the rest, of which only Pluto nodded.

Cologne started to cackle. "Well, there's some hope for some of you. Who else can see the spiral?" Of the rest of the Senshi only the blue-haired Mercury raised her hand. "Amusing."

"What's she doing? It looks just like she's taking her back around in a silly circle, wouldn't that just get her dizzy?" Moon frowned where she was, holding her sceptre tightly, she still wasn't sure they shouldn't just jump down. "Wait, did she just call it Pantyhose Taro?"

"Yes, that would be his name." Happosai nodded sagely, puffing on his pipe. "I gave it to him before I bathed him in the spring that cursed him. It's all a tragic accident really." Another few puffs, oblivious to the looks of pure horror he was getting. "Of course, if he ever wins a fight against either of us, he'll get the name he wants." He took a few steps back and grinned back, "I'm off to bask in my collection, see you ladies later." With that, Happosai disappeared off across a bunch of rooftops.

They all just stared before having their attention averted back to the fight below. Sure enough Ranma was still defending herself, throwing out jabs and mocking Taro with his fullname, repeating the Pantyhose part over and over again with a laugh. Finally she started to attack to divert the attention away from the spiral they were traversing, even the Eel was distracted from the punches, needing both sets of eyes to keep track of the ducking, shifting and backing up of Ranma.

_Just a few more steps...come on you idiot_...Ranma grinned, sticking her tongue out again and then all emotion dropped from her face, the cold she gave off surprised even Taro whom pulled back, realizing just at the last step, but it was to late.

**"HIRYUU SHOTEN HA!"** Of course, the move would normally be considered very useless against Pantyhose Taro, as due to his wings he could easily fly, but that was before Ranma had made use of the Hiryuu Hyo Toppa against the fight with Saffron, before the Gekkaja had unlocked whatever it was within Ranma. However, with other matters complicating the matter, the minature tornado launched Taro into the air but at the same time started to encase him in the cold. The use of his wings died away as ice formed on them. The large beast was helpless as he was thrown into the air and came smashing down into the ground, unconcious.

It continued for a moment longer, Ranma taking a small breath before she snorted in the direction of Taro. "Got ya, punk." With a quick glance around the parking lot, she found the whole Happosai had originally been sent through and as Ranma expected, there was some hot water waiting. Only enough for one person, but Ranma wasn't cruel enough to let Taro's wings freeze and fall off. She quickly jaunted over and poured the water on the unconcious beast, turning him back into regular old Taro, leaving the kettle there for him as well. "S'what he gets, now where's the old freak?" She looked up to the girls all watching with amazement before jumping up to them. Before he could ask, he was bombared with commentary.

"That was so awesome!"

"Can you teach me how to do that?"

"His powers were off the chart..."

"Oh man, that was so cool."

"What did the computer say?"

"Mama, papa, I'm hungry."

"How nice Sonny-boy."

Those were just the first sets of comments as he drowned out the girls and the old ghoul. "Look, it's getting late, I gotta get home or I'm gonna get it. I ain't gonna let Akane do no cooking if I can help it."

"Wait! Where do you...oh darn." Sailor Moon sighed as she made her sceptre disappear back to came from as Ranma jumped off in a hurry. "Should we follow her? Or should we help that boy down there?"

"Oh, he'll be fine." Cologne said after a moment. "He'll be up in a few minutes and transform back to normal and go flying off somewhere to plan his next move. You should come back tomorrow if you want to get ahold of Son in Law, not much usually happens on a Sunday after all."

"Well." Moon eyed her guardians and nodded. "I suppose we should get back home. I'm gonna take in the scenic route. See you all back at the temple?" Before the response came she jumped down off in a seemingly random direction.

"Wait, she's going to take the scenic route? If so I'm going to go shopping!" Venus said with a grin, waving at the others and decided to go in the exact opposite direction that Sailor Moon went towards.

Soon enough, all of the other Senshi made their own excuses, all going off except for Sailor Pluto whom stayed with Cologne.

"I better go pick them up." The Senshi in black shook her head and looked down at Cologne. "They're all probably going to go see Ranma now."

"No surprise there. I expect their reactions to be highly amusing once they really look at him as a boy, that future Son In Law of mine is quite the looker, I'll admit." Cologne chuckled and twisted up onto her stick and hopped back a few paces. "I suppose it might be best for you to know what he told me before the three of you showed up, Pluto-san."

"I'm assuming it has to do with that unnatural saturation of magic he's containing and using." They both turned to look at the prone form of Taro still laying on the ground, completely knocked out cold. Cologne knew that normally that wouldn't've happened, but the Ki of the Hiryuu Shoten Ha was colder than usual, the Soul of Ice had seemingly evolved. "That was a Ki move, but it was infused with magic which was probably why that boy's wings turned to ice."

"Sonny Boy never had magic in him a few months ago. When he went to China, he touched an Artifact." Cologne added to give fuel to Pluto's thoughts. "Well, used it to power one of his attacks, called it the Gekkaja, a staff with a crescent moon attatched to it."

"It might have broken the dam that held back his magical powers. The part that puzzles me is why he would be showing signs of Silver Moon Energy." She frowned slightly as she crossed her arms, tapping her fingers on her elbow. "All of us them were brought forward, there should not have been any left."

"Hm, he mentioned something about odd memories and headaches too..." Cologne trailed off, tilting her head, wondering about the last part just before the two girls and Setsuna-san had shown up. "I believe he has the memories of someone named Selene. I thought it was odd m..." This time she was cut off as Setsuna rounded on her and stared intently.

"Did you just say Selene?" Sailor Pluto demanded suddenly

"That is what he said, indeed. Asked if I knew the name Selene. I thought it was odd he would come across the staff, Gekkaja and then come up with the name of the Goddess of the Moon." Cologne hopped down to the parking lot suddenly, looking up with her old eyes at her old friend. "There may be more to this than seems. I will collect the boy here and take him back to the Cat Cafe when my Great-Granddaughter shows up. You would be best to see to those girls before they do something foolish. His attitude has changed and he never was patient with things that annoyed him."

The transformed Setsuna Meiou narrowed her red eyes and cursed under her breath, her hand came up to her lips as she chewed on one of her gloved fingers in thought. If Ranma really was the reincarnation of their Queen, why wouldn't she have shown up ealier? This wasn't in any of the Time Lines she had looked through. She was supposed to have used up her energy while sealing both Beryl and sending the others forward into the future. _Natural Reincarnation? Could that seriously be it? But why into the form of a boy cursed to turn into a girl? None of this makes sense._ "Thank you Cologne-chan. We'll speak later. I have to go check up on some things." With a wave of her hand at Cologne and then above her head, she slipped in through the cracks of subspace towards the Gates of Time leaving the old Matriarch to shake her head in wonderment.

While she hopped over to the prone form of Pantyhose Taro, Cologne heard Shampoo and Mousse showing up, finally. Of course they missed all of the fun and action. Perhaps it was better this way, Cologne knew her Great-Granddaughter would freak out at all of those magically empowered girls in sailor fuku. "Hurry up you two, you're late and we need to get him back to the Cafe."

"Great-Grandmother, why we help Panty-boy? He no deserve help!" She was vehement about that it seemed. Mousse just nodded along, making sounds of agreement.

"Another trick from that old Happosai." She turned her gaze back towards the two after examining the prone teen. "That and Son-In-Law used his Hiryuu Shoten Ha and it worked on his transformed state, the ice to his transformed wings seems to have afflicted him more than I thought. His life may just be in danger at this rate."With a single flick of her walking stick, she picked up Taro's prone body and flicked him over ot Shampoo. "Let's go. There are a few things we must discuss."

"...Never get to have any fun." Mousse mumbled under his breath, taking Taro's body from Shampoo before the three of them headed back to the Cat Cafe.

* * *

Usagi looked down at her wrist, she had just recently transformed and had just recieved a message from Setsuna abot the home of the Tendo's. Apparently that's where Ranma was staying and Usagi had intended on visiting. Of course, that was the way she had gone anyway, trying to follow Ranma back to where the transforming martial artist lived, but she had lost...her... after the fight. Ranma was to fast for the Princess of the Moon and she knew she was outclassed.

"Still, I don't want to wait until tomorrow. I have to know if he, or she, is a Senshi..." Usagi murmured, taking a few steps towaards the end of the street where she turned off to see the rather large Tendo Household. "Still, I wonder why Setsuna had such an amused look. She's planning something, I know it." She groused a little as she continued to lazily walk towards the enterance of the Tendo home.

It took her a few more moments, rrecalling the conversation she had with Setsuna the moment before and smiled, feeling the Ginzuishou glow happily within her. An idea came over as she walked onto the property, calling out a hearty hello.

* * *

Notes from the Author:

As per usual, please ignore the typographical errors, and I apologize for the delay in getting this up. I got stuck on the fight for a bit but went with it anyway, it's a pretty minor scuffle all things considered and I'm planning on some more action in a little bit. On the upside, I've got notes for the next two parts done and after a little more we should be done with the beginning of this story.

Admittedly, I'm using this as a piece to break my writer's block, so honestly, I'm still not sure about myself and what I've been writing when it comes to this story. Thank you for the comments so far though, they're giving me good motivation to keep writing. :)

Also, Happy Holidays Everyone!


	5. Chapter 4: Revelations Part 1

Usagi Tsukino, Heir to the Silver Millenium Empire, the Princess Serenity whom was the daughter of Queen Serenity, Sailor Moon and various other titles and names, was a klutz. Sure, she can get around perfectly fine if she was transformed and she'd even be a figure of grace if she was Princess Serenity, but as regular old Usagi? Forget it, plain and simple.

Point in fact, after calling out her hello to the Tendo household, she tripped over the gate enterence. Oddly enough, she managed to catch herself, sighing with relief, she had picked up some balance after all these years of fighting youma...somehow.

Of course, not even a moment later when she was greeted at the door that she tripped over her own shoe and fell face first in the doorway, planting her nose right on the wodden floor right in front of the lady whom greeted her.

"Oh my! Are you okay?" the brown haired girl asked, kneeling down to help Usagi up.

"Oh, yeah, happens all the time." Usagi said sheepishly. "I'm used to it now." She smiled brightly as she stood with help and dusted herself up, introducing herself at the same time. "I'm Usagi Tsukino."

"It's nice to meet you, I am Kasumi Tendo. Is there something I can help you with today?" Kasumi smiled gently, taking a few steps back and blinking at the girl as she dusted off the front of her blouse.

"Uhm, yes. I'm looking for...uh...Ranma Saotome."

"Oh, he must be in the Dojo, why don't you come in and I'll take you there."

"Thank you." Usagi paused, blinking a few times at the 'he' comment. Wasn't Ranma a girl? Or, wait, didn't that old lady say something?

Kasumi took another couple of measured steps backwards, turning gracefully and walked back down the ahll from where she came, leading her past the main living area, stopping when someone called out to her. "Hey, Kasumi, who's that?"

"Nabiki? Oh this is..." The Eldest Tendo started, taking a step to the side as Usagi bowed.

"Usagi Tsukino, pleased to meet you." She said with a bright smile that rivaled Kasumi's best. "I'm here to meet Ranma."

"Ranma, huh?" Nabiki's eyes gleamed and a predatory grin slipped across her features. Usagi thought it was almost scary. "Finally, it's been so boring lately."

"No one has been visiting lately." Kasumi nodded in agreement. "Will you be staying long?" Turning to ask Usagi as she started walking on, past her father Soun and a transformed Genma playing Go. Oddly enough, Usagi paid no heed to the Panda sitting there with a black stone in his paw, looking at the board intently.

"No, only for a little bit. Just needed to ask Ranma a few things." Usagi watched as Kasumi nodded and lead her to the Dojo.

"He's usually in there at this time of day, do be careful, my sister Akane likes to jump to conclusions without thinking things through." Kasumi smiled politely, knowing full well what she said was a blatant understatement, but things had been getting better this last little while.

"Thank you Kasumi-san." Usagi bowed, watching the eldest Tendor girl walk back the way she came before turning and looking at the door to the Dojo. Upon opening the door, she saw two people within, a pigtailed boy that looked oddly familar and a girl whom was trying to mimic the same motions as the boy. However, not even a moment after Usagi tripped into the dojo the girl tripped up and fell to the ground. _She must be Akane_. Usagi thought to herself as she rubbed her nose, at least it was only the second time she fell over.

"Who are you?" Akane's tone was low and, by the sounds of it, annoyed. The boy didn't look and continued on with the strange movements he was doing.

"Ah, uhm...my name is Usagi Tsukino, I'm here looking for Ranma Saotome." She smiled brightly as she sat up a bit more, still rubbing her reddened nose.

"That'd be me, what ya want?" Ranma said, still not looking while he continued his movements.

"Wait, you...? But, I'm looking for a red haired girl." Usagi frowned and blinked a few times.

"At least you're not another member of the finacée brigade then." Akane sighed, looking reprovingly at Ranma as she picked herself up, going over to the blonde girl. "You know, you look kind of like Ranma, especially your eyes, not many people have blue eyes like that around here."

Usagi shrugged at the second bit, chosing to respond only to the first statement. "Oh, no, I have my own boyfriend." _Mmm, Mamoru, I can't wait for you to get back..._

"So, again, what ya want?" Ranma asked, finally breaking out of his slow movements, finally turning towards Usagi. Wait, wasn't he the boy at that...cafe place?

"Well, actually..." She trailed off, wondering how exactly to put her questions when she heard another voice calling from outside, she had also apparently forgotten to shut the door, however the voice seemed oddly familiar. "...Oh no." she blushed in embarresment.

"Oh no?" Akane asked, her temper rising a little bit again, almost about to jump to another conclusion that would lead to Ranma more than likely taking a short flight into the air via Mallet Airlines.

"I think all my friends had the same idea. We were going to come tomorrow but we didn't want to wait." Usagi said with a small blush. "You see, we watched a female Ranma fight today and there was something about the energy he was using, we were trying to track it..." She started her explination as she waited for the first of her friends to also show up in the Dojo.

* * *

Minako Aino felt pretty good about herself and the bright idea she had. She was going to go check out that red-head before everyone else, just to make sure she was a reasonable person. After getting the information from Setsuna, she cut short her shopping trip and headed on over to the Tendo Dojo, taking heed in the green-haired woman's advice to not be transformed when she showed up.

As she came up to to the rather large home, she called out in greeting, finding the one who greeted her in responce, Kasumi Tendo, to be a rather nice lady and thanked her a few times. She of course was here to see Ranma and the brunette lead the blonde through the house, passed the living room where they were stopped by Nabiki, asking whom was there, laughing and saying something about another one. However, before they continued on, Minako was stopped short by the rather massive Panda sitting there on one side of a Go board.

It took her a moment to process that information and she looked over at Kasuma, asking the obvious question. "Is...is that really a Panda?"

Before Kasumi could respond, Minako watched the Panda pull out a sign with his paw that said 'Hello!' It flipped around suddenly and there was even more writing, this time it said 'They're all in the Dojo'.

Minako waved weakly, shuddered absently, and then followed behind Kasumi trying to not think about the Panda.

After thanking Kasumi and watching the older girl go, the blonde walked into the door, wondering why the door was open when she saw three people within the Dojo. There was a rather well built young man there, a girl standing next to him and...wait..._Is that Usagi...oh maaaaaan..._

However, it didn't take long for the undisguised Senshi of Love to stare dreamily at the boy, however it was cut short as the girl standing next to him saw her stare and latched onto his arm. "Don't even think about it, he's mine."

"Sorry, well, uhm...I guess we're looking for Ranma Saotome." Mina said with a grin, and then walked over to Usagi, looking at the other girl who looked back. They both had the same idea, that wasn't so bad. The fact that Usagi of all people had beaten her here was the embarresing part.

"Yeah, I'm right here." Ranma said with a sigh as he raised his hand.

"We're looking for a red-haired female Ranma Saotome." Mina said with an exasperated sigh, but she was shocked at the boys response as he rolled his eyes.

"Yep, one and the same, right here." He said with a roll of his shoulders. "Akane, can you get the water." Ranma stopped for a moment, blinking and adding in one last word. "Please.?"

The girl, Akane had been starting to get mad, why were all of these people looking for her fiancé? It didn't help that Ranma wanted her to get water, but she did soften when he even said please. It really was as if he was trying to be nice to her, and admittedly, Akane loved it. "One sec, Ranma. I'll get a bit." She smiled and walked around the two to get the water.

"Seriously, where's the red-head?" Minako asked.

"Hey, remember what that old Chinese lady said, Mina-chan." Usagi brought up, watching as Ranma sighed.

It was a moment later when Akane walked back in, this time with another girl whom was helping her with water. She was a brunette, much like Kasumi, only she was almost as tall as Ranma, maybe even more so. Introduced as Makoto Kino.

"Did you guys know you've a Panda in the living room?"

_

* * *

_

One Hour later in the Tendo Dojo

In total, eight girls were now sitting in the Dojo along with Akane and completely soaked Ranma. They all watched him transform back and forth, with Hotaru even getting into it and helping with the water while giggling. Also, it seemed that every single one of them outside of Usagi had thought the Panda was strange, especially the flipping sign and how it apparently said more than a few things with just a few flips. Ranma snickered as he explained it was just something that Pops could do. The shushed conversation continued, wondering what he meant by Pops, was that the Panda's name? However, it was halted as soon as it began due to yet another person showing up.

Unlike the rest, she was not just a teen. She introduced herself to Akane and Ranma as Setsuna. She was also the only one other than Usagi not to be peturbed by the sight of the panda in the living room. Thanks to the Gates of Time, she had caught the highlights and knew just what Genma was. "Sorry about all of them."

"Heh. Dealt with worse. This ain't so bad all things considered. Hey wait, now I remember, you three were at the cafe when I went to see the Old Ghoul." Ranma's fist dropped into his open palm. "Wait, you got more questions, ain't what I showed you ealier good enough?" He was rubbing his temples almost instantly though, his headache obviously back

"There were a few questions we had, as well as a few things to test. However, that was going to be tomorrow." She glared over at her compatriots. "Speaking of which, it's time to go and leave these people with some decorum of peace."

"We're sorry." All eight of them chimed out.

"No big. Well, not sure when a good time is tomorrow. I still gotta ask the Old Ghoul some questions and I got an important promise I gotta keep with Akane here." Ranma said simply, but grimaced all of a sudden and sat down while the other girls were pooling out of the room.

"Wait!" Akane suddenly called, stopping the girls at the dojo door. "Please, can you help him? I can't stand to see Ranma in pain like this." She blushed suddenly, realizing what she was saying, but looking steadiily at Setsuna.

Setsuna turned and looked at Akane, her red eyes narrowing for a moment. "This knowledge is dangerous. Youma will attack if they find anyone with any inkling of it to try and latch onto the secrets that can be unlocked and the power that comes with it."

Ranma and Akane looked at Setsuna and then to each other and back again before they shrugged it off. "Nothing new. Not after Herb. Not after Ryu. Not after Saffron." Ranma bit out the last name with growl. The Phoenix God once again brought to the forefront of Ranma's mind. "I won't let anything happen like that again. Ever." He stared back up at Setsuna whom just simply nodded.

"Wait a moment." Makoto suddenly cut in, wondering exactly why Ami hadn't already. "Even if they need help, we shouldn't be telling those secrets to Outsiders." She bit her lip as Setsuna simply looked at her.

"Well, why don't we just see what Ranma asks first?" Setsuna's voice was mild.

"Well. I told the Old Ghoul ealier today, I got memories stuffed sideways in my head." Ranma's voice took a quiet turn as everyone came closer, Akane pulling him to his feet. "Sometimes I can't keep track of what's what. The best way is to just concentrate on that fight I had with Saffron. Though I keep replaying the battle in my head, over and over, if there was anyway I could've done something better, something sooner, faster, stronger..." he trailed off, his voice just a bare shell of what it was, his eyes gone cold and emotionless as he slipped into the Soul of Ice once again, the room starting to become unnaturally cold. "All the time, I see people talking to me, my memories."

Setsuna nodded slowly, the girls all taking in what he was saying.

"Yet they don't call me by my name. They don't call me Ranma." He stopped, his eyes gaining some life as he slipped back out of the Soul of Ice, the thoughts of Saffron retreating from his mind. "You said you could have answers for me. Who is Selene and why do I remember bits and pieces of being her?"

The various looks of shock and disbelief coming from the various girls caused Ranma to blink a few times. There was vocal disbelief and outright denial coming from a few. Most specifically Minako, Usagi and Ami. It seemed like Rei nodded and was the only one other than Setsuna whom seemed to come to a different conclusion from the rest.

"That would be why, Mako-chan. Understand now?" Setsuna asked softly, the brunette only nodded in response, trying to think this one through.

Akane suddenly looked at Ranma, actual concern coming to her eyes. The faint bit of jealousy that Ranma was surrounded by girls having fled completely long ago. "Is this what the headaches really are?"

"Yeah. It's not so bad most of the time." Ranma said, rubbing the back of his bowed head. "Everytime my mind wanders, memories that ain't my own just come seepin' in. The dreams are even worse, more vivid." Suddenly he shudders. "They're even worse when I'm a girl. They just seem so real." He refused to say it scared him. There was only two things that had scared him before. One was an irrational fear of those furry demon-spawn, the other was losing the one beside him. He refused to admit to a third thing, that he was losing himself and his idenity.

"So, you've never heard of that name before?" Usagi suddenly stepped forward, the rest of the girls taking a step back to circle around them.

Ranma just tapped the side of his head. "Just up here."

An exchange went between Setsuna and Usagi then, Ranma taking his own step back to take a deep breathe and blow it out calmly, looking at Akane and suddenly taking her hand into his and giving it a squeeze, looking for comfort when there hadn't been much lately.

"Alright." Usagi finally said softly as she reached behind her back and then back in front of her where she cupped with both her hands a crystal. This was the end all, be all. The final test and the final answer they could give Ranma and as little as Usagi and the rest knew of the boy in front of them, she knew she could trust him. "I'm not sure if this can help, but you might find some answers within." Usagi's own voice was low and the barest of sad smiles was on her lips. "Just touch this and maybe you'll find your answers."

The raven-haired, pig-tailed, boy nodded softly but as his gaze went from the blonde girl before him to the crystal within her hands, all light in his eyes died. Emotionless, his fingers reached forth to touch the crystal. The barest of lights was released as his fingers neared the crystal and at their touch, a warm, serene light seemed to envelop the boy. However, when his hand curls around the crystal, taking it gently from the girls hand, the crystal erupts in a bright flash, blinding everyone around them. When the light dies away, the crystal is floating between the two, however, the boy that was there had been replaced, the black in his hair melting away, turning silver while the rest of his body transformed into what was better known as the boys cursed form. To complete the transformation a symbol appeared upon the girls forehead in the shape of an upturned, golden, crescent moon.

The transformation was complete, but the now female Ranma floated there, eyes closed, serene as the light wrapped around her for a moment. Suddenly a beam of energy shot from the girl up into the darkening sky, arcing out into points unknown.

* * *

**Notes from the Author:**

Shorter chapter this time around, I wanted to get this one up and out of the way so I can concentrate on writing a specific part in the next chapter, which, hopefully, should turn into the longest chapter of the bunch. I've also decided to put my other project on the backburner until this one sees something closer to an end, and with the way my notebook is filling up, it doens't look like it'll be anytime soon. Anyway this time around, I've actually got a few comments to the people leaving the reviews. With a generalized thank you to everyone that's reading this stuff. So, first off, let's go with this.

Q: I did Wiki, you'll understand where I'm going with this by either the next update or the one there after.

NatalieEGH: Honestly, it's thanks to you that I came up with the ideas that are shaping up. At first I was going to take a crossing middle, but your comment made me go with one specifically, you hit the nail on the head with it though. Again, thank you.

Tribun: Sorry, can't edit an important part. If I was going to go with Serenity, I'd've actually used the name, but for this specific fic I'm going with Selene. However, thank you for the other compliments and I hope you can't wait for the continued chapters as well.

Everyone else: Hope you enjoy, I'll try to write longer chapters a bit quicker than I have been. :)


	6. Chapter 5: Revelations Part 2

The Tendo Dojo was completely filled with females, with the girls from Juuban comprising as the majority while the remader of the Tendo girls, Kasumi and Nabiki had opted to find out just what was going on, though, each for their own reasons. Kasumi was about to ask if anyone would like some tea while Nabiki was going down to see why her camera equipment had started to malfunction. They both stopped when they saw Ranma floating there in the air with some sort of crystal also floating right in front of her. Nabiki just cocked an eyebrow like she usually did, after living with the Saotomes for over two years almost nothing phased her anymore.

Kasumi however raised her hand to her lips in a little bit of surprise. Sure she was just as used to the oddities around her home, even transformations and the such, but the beam of light was a bit much for her modest sensibilities. "Oh my!" The words that escaped her lips even garnered her attention from everyone else in the room as other that the faint feeling of energy, it had gone dead silent when Ranma and Usagi fell into their trances.

Nabiki, not to let a single bit of future blackmail or chance at money to slip by instantly pulled out her camera and snapped several pictures quickly, of course she would have continued if it wasn't for her Akane's angry glare. A faint grin passed the lips of the middle Tendo as she quipped, "Only for the family album, honest, sis."

"Honestly." Akane sighed and turned back to look on as Ranma continued to float there for a moment longer before the crystal dropped into his hands and he slowly started descending the couple feet that the boy-turned-girl floated. "Ranma, you okay over there?" she asked with a little concern in her voice. A transformation without water wasn't the first time, but it was the first with the floating and the silver hair. That golden crescent moon on Ranma's head certainly stood out as well.

As the martial artist finally stood back upon the floor of the Dojo, there was quiet for a moment longer. Something was strangely out of order here, Ranma being quiet? The Tendo sisters waited for the inevitable cocky grin, and as a minute passed even Nabiki was starting to get worried. The other girls, although not knowing Ranma did know their Princess and Usagi had already snapped out of the suddenly induced reverie brought on by her Ginzuishou useage. Suddenly the blonde gasped in shock, reacting as fast as she could, reaching out and grabbing ahold of Ranma suddenly.

It was all she could do to stop Ranma from collapsing in a heap and smashing his head on the floor. The sudden collapse was very unexpected and suddenly Akane was there next to Usagi with concern overriding the spike of jealousy. "Ranma? Ranma!? Wake up! Come on..." she trailed off as a sudden chill overrode her senses, the feeling of a hand touching her shoulder caused Akane to turn suddenly, looking at Usagi.

The blonde nodded slowly, "It's alright Akane, he's just sleeping." Usagi grimaced slightly. "I didn't think it'd be so exhausting. I apologize."

"No, it's alright. I shouldn't've overreacted like that." Akane mirrored the younger girl's grimace as she pulled Ranma closer to her. "Just that this has never really happened before. New things around here usually end up in something getting destroyed or someone trying to kill him, or worse, get him married."

A few of the girls twitched at that last part. '_Getting married is worse than dying?'_ most of them thought at the same time.

Usagi reached out and gently rubbed Ranma's hands while taking the Ginzuishou from the boys hands. Another tinge of jealousy from Akane until she remembered that Usagi had her own boyfriend and she was just taking what was hers. "He should be okay by tomorrow." Usagi said confidently after a moment, nothing like the klutz that had walked into the Tendo home about an hour previously.

"Alright, I'll go put him in his room." Akane said after a moment, gently lifting the Ranma's girl from into her arms, cradling silver-haired girl in her arms before heading back towards the main part of the house. Kasumi silently followed suit, intent on helping make sure everything was going smoothly. Nabiki instead stayed in the Dojo, intent on keeping an eye on these girls.

Aknowledging Nabiki's presense, they couldn't really go on with their usual talk, even if something like that had happened to Ranma and she now looked eerily like their former Queen. Usagi was the first to speak up. "I think it's time we all headed home, we've imposed long enough on the Tendo's and Ranma." She nodded resolutely at that last as if it was fact.

"I think some of us should stay here." Haruka said suddenly, disagreeing with Usagi rather openly. "We don't know what will happen."

Michiru nodded in agreement with her lover, "To watch out for things. This place is a total nexus of chaos and someone needs to protect her."

The rest of the Senshi start to agree with the two Outers, though Usagi still looking doubtful. Finally they convinced her to turn to Nabiki and ask softly "Would it be alright if one of us stayed here to make sure Ranma is alright? Just in case something goes wrong and all."

The Ice Queen narrowed her eyes in contemplation, her hand almost opening as of reflex, of course none of these girls knew her. Though the oldest one, Setsuna seemed to be looking at her oddly. "It shouldn't be much of a problem." There was even a faint grimace, her sisters wouldn't be happy if she charged them either, they were willing to help. "We've got room for once since Ranma's mother is gone for a couple weeks to see some family elsewhere in Tokyo." Even offering free information, what was with this? "I think I need a drink, I'll be right back." She was rubbing her temples as she left.

"Thank you so very much Nabiki." Usagi bowed her head in aknowledgement as the older girl left before she turned to her Guardians. "Now who's going to stay?"

The query started off a quick debate between the girls. Haruka and Michiru wanted to stay because it was their duty. Hotaru wanted to stay because Haruka and Michiru wanted to stay. Minako wanted to stay because it was fun, Makoto wanted to stay because it was a Dojo and she might learn something and she wanted to trade recipes with Kasumi. Ami herself wanted to stay to study the changes in Ranma and get some readings for her computer. Usagi and Rei were pretty much the only ones that didn't want to stay. Usagi because she didn't think it was proper but knew that someone had too and Rei because of her Grandfather would need her in the morning at the Shrine. Setsuna is the only one that didn't say anything at first.

Finally though she did speak up and and was rather blatant about it. "I'll be the one staying, the rest of you can all just go home." The red-eyed woman looked over everyone. "I'm the best choice for several reasons, really." she said as if it was simply a matter of fact. "And I can get ahold of everyone the fastest." She looked around seeing no disagreements. Of course the Senshi weren't used to their oldest member really speaking out for herself all that often.

"Alright, agreed. Setsuna you stay here. You notify everyone if anything happens. I want to know the moment she wakes up. I don't care if it's four in the morning." Usagi stated as if it was a Royal Decree.

"Of course, Princess." Setsuna bowed her head with a smile. "You are growing up after all."

"Of course I am." Usagi grinned, making a V with her right hand.

A moment later Nabiki walked back into the Dojo, a glass half full in her hand. "So, who all is staying?" she asked dryly before taking a sip of her new found drink.

"Just me." Setsuna said in reply, nodding at the middle Tendo, her red eyes meandering back to the rest of the girls assembled. "I'll talk to you all tomorrow, no go on, shoo." she continued with a smile.

* * *

Upstairs Akane had pushed open the door to Ranma's room with her foot, the smaller girl still cradled in her arms. With a sigh, she walked in slowly and gave the room a spare glance. It was, for the lack of a better word, empty. Even after the two years spent in the Tendom home, Ranma had no belongings really placed around the room. Sure there was the odd thing here and there, but it felt so lifeless. "Oh, Ranma, honestly..." Akane spoke softly, looking at the girl in her arms. After the failed wedding, Nabiki finally relented and allowed Ranma the money to actually buy a bed for himself. All things considered, Akane wasn't sure if it was worth it in exchange.

Shifting the former red-head into one arm, Akane pulled back the covers and gently laid Ranma down before tucking her in. She continued to gaze at the transformed girl, taking in the few changes that had taken place, they all looked out of place, but other than that, it didn't seem much out of the ordinary. Sure that golden, upturned, crescent moon looked weird, but hey, this was Nerima, everything was weird.

"Get better soon." Akane whispered as she sat down next to Ranma as she continued to doze in unconciousness, pulling out something from her pocket and looking at it for a moment while her eyes grew sad. Ukyo had helped her pick it out, and it was only a few more days until she could give it to Ranma.

Ever since they got back from China, things had changed, after the wedding, Ukyo had realized what she had done and apologized to Akane. It had been worse than what happened back at Auntie Nodoka's home, and Ukyo backed out completely. Shampoo was another matter as well. Ranma couldn't even stand to look at the purple haired Chinese Amazon Warrior after what had happened and it had been almost a month since Akane had seen her or Cologne. Obviously Ranma still went to see the Elder, but Akane stayed out of it, she knew she wouldn't be able to control her firey temper if she saw either of them, and instead of taking chances, she just avoided them altogether.

"Hell, it's been about a month since I even last used my mallet, hasn't it Ranma?" She recalled the event and shook her head. She had almost blown a gasket, over her cooking of course. She was mad at Ranma for not eating it, mad at herself for her failure to make decent food, mad at everyone for the pitying looks. All she suddenly saw was red, the mallet had appeared, ready to bash the baka in his face and send him flying but Ranma had actually stopped her. At first it made her even more mad, but for some reason Ranma's voice was calm and he even made a promise!

She thought back further to what he had said and what had gone on.

_"I'll eat your food without comment if you stop using this thing, Akane. Everytime you use it, you get angerier which means you want to use it more. This mallet is bad for your health, Tomboy. It's bad for our relationship." Ranma was holding back the mallet with just his right hand, not even paying attention to it and just looking at her in the eyes. Akane knew he was using the Soul of Ice, and it close proximity to to him, she could feel her own thoughts slow down and rationalize. "I got Ryoga to promise not to use the Shi Shi Hokodan for the same reason, he used it and got more depressed. It's like a drug, Tomboy, I don't want you to get addicted."_

_Of course, she wasn't having any of it, she hated being called a Tomboy, she even snarled it out angrily, the rage coming harder and faster._

_"Haven't you figured it out yet?" Ranma had looked at her, almost sadly. "I _like_ tomboys." he had said it pointedly and pulled the Mallet away from her grip, it disintegrating easily._

_Suddenly, she came to her senses and several things clicked in her head and she slumped to the ground. "Oh, Ranma...what have I done?" their were tears in her eyes, but almost as suddenly, she could feel him near, his arms wrapped around her._

_"Shh, it's okay. Stop crying will ya? You know I can't handle it when y'cry."_

Akane shook her head, the memory still very clear. She smiled while she put the small box back into her pocket and looked down at Ranma in bed. "Baka. I don't know what I'd do without you..." With a quick look around, making sure Nabiki wasn't at the door, just in case, Akane leaned down and kissed the boy-turned-girl's forehead gently. "Wake up soon, please." Standing and without another word, she left the room and closed the door.

As she made her way to the stairs Akane could hear Kasumi saying farewell to their guests, and at the bottom of the stairwell she could see that most of the girls had already left. The oldest, Setsuna was standing next to Kasumi, waving them off with a smile as well, however, Usagi paused at the door when she saw Akane making her way down.

The blonde quickly bowed at the waist. "I'm sorry for what happened, I'll do anything I can to make up for it. It's my fault Ranma's like this, I shouldn't have pushed for that information I needed." she grimaced a little.

"Don't worry about it." Akane said after half a thought. "Tell you what. Once Ranma wakes up and everything is back to normal, you can take out and we'll go get some ice cream."

If the attitude change hadn't happened in front of them, Akane would have sworn no one was like that, but the hearts in Usgai's eyes were like a deer stuck in bright lights. "You bet!" she shouted in glee. "See you soon!" With that, she ran off to catch up with the rest of her friends.

Akane shook her head and stopped next to her sister and Setsuna, Nabiki was also watching with a roll of her eyes from the other hallway. Kasumi was the first to speak up. "I'll go tell Father and Uncle Saotome." With that she smiled at Setsuna and walked off towards the living room.

"Enough excitement for me." Nabiki deadpanned, swirling her glass. "I'm going to my room. Gonna jot down some notes and make sure I got some good pictures from ealier." She tossed off a grin. "Later sis, Meiou-san."

"Night Nabiki." Akane said while Setsuna nodded absently.

Soon enough the two were standing silently besides each other at the enterance to the Tendo home. They both turned and looked at each other for a moment. "Tell me everything." They said in unison, taking each other by surprise. Akane laughing and Setsuna shaking her head. It was still a couple hours before dark, so they went back into the Dojo to talk and tell each other their stories, most of it even had the truth.

* * *

_Darkness._

_There was nothing around, it was empty, a gasping shudder, each moment a lifetime of pain and agony. A scraping knife against the throat, jagged and hollow breaths to just swallow some air to continue living. This is what it felt like to die, barely able to tell what was what and who was who. How long had it been since before the suffering? Days? Weeks? Months? It seemed like a lifetime ago when there was light. Back then there was happiness, back then there joy, laughter, and love. Now, everything was Chaos, and it wasn't rightly so._

_Intersperced, their was a flash of something that was light, but it was not salvation, just prolongued suffering._

_A single boy sat there, curled up in the corner, watching as everything flashed by. He did not belong here, this was not his time, his life, yet he watched. He watched as the years ticked by in seconds and as the seconds took years to pass. The beginning of a jumbled mess through the times of joy and finally through the throes of agony. Those last moments were not right, they were a mistake and it was far from natural. Yet he watched, forced to go through these visions over and over. The boy saw the girl grow, become old yet not age, and then die. Over and over and over..._

_Yet within the darkness, a hand reached out to the boy, a soft feeling encompanying it. A soft feminine whisper reaching his ears, pulling him out of his reverie, no longer rocking back and forth, trying to ignore the madness around him. The boy reaches out his own hand, clasping the offered one in his own, being pulled forward to his feet. The feeling of terror still overwhelming him, but the essence of calm started to wash over the area, the darkness fading away to light._

_He opened his eyes fully, looking at the one before him and knew what once was would eventually be again. Before him stood she stood, a mirror of his own soul, his fingers intertwined with hers as his other hand reached out towards her other, pulling her closer. With a gentle pull, they came together, the memories clashing together in a mesh of maddening clarity. Then they moved as one, looking at each other, blue eyes locked upon blue eyes and took that one final step._

_They descended into chaos._

_"Everything will be alright child..." a clear whisper rose above all._

_The woman leaned closer to the boy, using him for support as her lips neared his. Within that simple gesture, their lips met in a most sensual kiss, their eyes closing, their bodies melting together as the light started to fade. Soon, once again their was nothing, and even then, two became one. Oblivion followed soon after._

_And then there was nothing, a dead silence broken by one last whisper in a mind that was finally starting to become whole._

_"...thank...you..."_

* * *

She awoke with a start, gasping for air that she had thought would not come, her lungs filling with the sweet sensation. At first, she was just simply startled that she could even breathe. To her, the feeling was foreign but very much welcomed, and after a moment, she had calmed down, her eyes closing and taking in one final slow breath, savoring it as if it was heaven just to be able to breathe.

It took a moment, but she finally opened her eyes and looked around. The room was, much like being able to breath properly, foreign to her. The area laid before her eyes was bare and empty, as if it was just there for the sake of being used. A couple of books were strewn out on the floor and the single door to the room was open ever so slightly.

"D...did someone save me...?" she whispered, but before she could reign in that train of thought, her eyes widened in shock.

Her voice! It was different, it wasn't her voice...and yet it still somehow managed to feel right. "What is going on with me..." she murmured softly, taking in her own body in stock. Again, it felt different, yet right, she looked at her arms, not remembering them being that muscular. Nor did she remember ever having a chest that ample. Hands explored slowly, making sure there were no marks, this was no surgery.

Magic? It must've been. Yet how?

Her thoughts interrupted as the door shot it's way open. She tried to react, but her body still felt sluggish, however, it didn't seem to mean much, there was no threat, but the girl that was looking at her was wide-eyed. She burst in, with what looked like near tears in her eyes and suddenly this new girl was hugging her fiercely. _'Was she the one that saved me?'_

"Oh, you're okay! I was so worried!" the girl said, pulling back to give her a good look before shaking her head and giving her another hug.

She hugged the girl back after a moment, her eyes trailing to the door. A greenhaired woman, tanned with red-eyes stood there casually and took in the scene. She looked oddly familiar to a little girl she had just met before she had fallen asleep. Nevertheless, first things first.

"I'm sorry." She pulled back out of the hug, holding the girl at arm's length, looking into her eyes. Why was she also so damned familiar? '_Why can't I remember who she is?'_ mentally, she kicked herself and shook her head. "But...where am I?"

"Akane." the other woman at the door said suddenly. "Maybe we should take her downstairs so she can eat."

The girl named Akane nodded slowly. "Maybe that's a good idea, Setsuna-san." Akane pulled out of the hug with her causing a frown to pass across both of their lips. "Come on Ranma, let's go get some food..."

She blinked at Akane, slowly pushing herself away from the bed, gingerly about to get up when a frown appeared on her lips as well. "Sorry about this but...who's Ranma?"

* * *

**Notes from the Author:**

Well, that took a bit to long to get written up. Company one week, sick the next, stuck on a part the third. Oh well, at least I can do nothing but catch up for the next while. It's a bit shorter than I'd like, admittedly, but hey. I know the next one will be a bit longer than this one. Honestly, I've got 9 pages of notes for the next couple parts, and I should hopefully have them up for the next bit. I also might start putting the parts as whole pieces instead of cutting them up into three parts like I've been doing. However, that'll take longer so maybe it'll wait until I'm done and I do revisions with my typing and such.

Not much to say to the reviews this time around other than the usual 'I hope you enjoy it' bit.

Also, yes, the whole premise is going to be thrown into the light in the next part and we'll go from there. I think I might be a bit to story heavy for a good Ranma fic, so I hope I'm not being a disappointment. I do have a fight with Ryoga in the works, a second one and then one against at least one youma eventually before I finish up what I would classify as the beginning of the story before getting into the real thick of things.

Again, thanks for reading everyone and hope 2010's been treating you good so far.


	7. Chapter 6a: Revelations Final Part

All of the people living at the Tendo Dojo, sans Nodoka Saotome, were sitting around the dining room table while Setsuna was off to the side, leaning against the wall and nursing a cup fo tea that Kasumi had retrieved for her. Ranma was sitting in the center while being surrounded by the three Tendo girls, ensuring that Genma wouldn't do something Genma-ish. He had originally was about to douse his confused son turned daughter with hot water until he had been reminded by Nabiki about the first time a gender-confused Ranma had thought he was a girl and transformed back to normal. Of course, that last time, she knew she was still Ranma where as the silver-haired girl before them didn't know at all.

All in all, since Akane and Setsuna had escorted Ranma down to the main area of the house, it had been a confusing morning.

"Well, why don't we just start with a reintroduction then?" Kasumi brightly said. The obvious statement coming from the oblivious looking girl was enough to throw the others for a loop because it was so simple they hadn't bothered to think about it themselves.

The Tendo's reintroduced themselves, Ranma bowing politely to each in turn. Genma came next, introducing himself with a frown and narrowed eyes behind his glasses. "Tendo, can you fetch me some cold and hot water?" he added afterwards.

"Of course, Saotome." Soun replied, getting up from the table.

"Uncle Saotome, why do you want cold water?" Kasumi asked with a tilt of her head off to the side.

"Just checking something, Kasumi. It's all for myself."

Suddenly Soun came back and tipped the water over Genma turning the large martial-artist into a larger panda. His memory lapsed daughter seemed to widen her eyes and scoot back a couple inches and Panda-Genma narrowed his eyes and let out a sorrowful 'growf'.

Setsuna just snickered.

***It's not polite to laugh at* **_flip _***other peoples misfortune* **_flip _***Setsuna-san.***

Setsuna blinked a few times, "How do you do that?"

The panda seem to grin and just flipped the sign a fourth time, ***Trade secret.***

Everyone shook their heads at that while Genma shrugged and let out another small 'growf' while looking back at his daughter and sniffed the air a few times before nodding at something and looked expectantly at Soun whom obliged with the water. The transformation was just as quick as the last one and Ranma seemed to cock her head head to the left and frowned while looking at Genma.

"I'm sorry." the silver-haired girl said after a moment, fidgeting with her pig-tail. "I know you all said you know me, but none of you seem familiar to me at all." she paused, putting a finger to her lips in contemplation for a moment before turning to Setsuna. "Well, no, you remind me of someone. Do you have a daughter or little sister?"

Setsuna shook her head. "Only child I'm afraid. I currently go by Setsuna Meiou." she took another sip of her tea.

Another frown crossed the silver haired girl, almost a pout. "Well, I guess everyone can call me Selene." she said after a moment of contemplation. "What I would really like to know is...whom saved me? Also, where am I? This isn't the Palace as I last recall, nor was that my bedroom." She seemed oblivious of the questioning faces, recanting what she could from her memory.

Akane was the most devestated, Nabiki was intrigued, Kasumi's smile never faultering. Soun seemed ready to break out in massive tears and Genma nodded sagely. Setsuna arched a single green eyebrow. Akane was also the first to speak up. "Ran...I mean, Selene. You're in Nerima right now, the Palace is in Chiyoda."

"Chiyoda?" Ranma frowned again. "No, that's not right..." she trailed off, even more confused now.

"What she means to say is that you're on Earth." Setsuna mentioned after a moment, walking over to the four girls and knelt down beside her. "In the country of Japan, specifically."

"Earth? Where's that? I was..." shocked, realization coming to Selene as she trailed off, looking out at the sky for the first time in the morning, her eyes widening as she got up, almost stumbling as she made her way outside to stare at the sky. Her eyes frantically scanned the sky, and she saw the partial outline of the moon dropping out of the sky. "...I'm on Terra? How? This isn't possible..." she shuddered softly as she slumped to her knees.

There was worry over everyone's faces and everyone was about to go comfort the girl, yet it was Genma of all people that stopped them, silently raising his arm and looking at the ohers. "She needs a moment. Let the girl be for a few until she regains her composure." It was the first time that Genma didn't say those words as if they were an insult.

"What's with you? Normally you'd be ranting and raving about your son being such a girl and how you didn't deserve this." Nabiki said with an almost sneer, though it dropped from her face when she actually looked at Genma's serious face.

"That person isn't my son." Genma said, tapping his nose. "They smell different, even her Ki is completely different, it's as if it's gone." He looked towards Setsuna. "There better be a way to fix that. I refuse to lose my only child." His voice was bitter and low. This was a side of Genma none of them had ever seen before and even Setsuna was slightly taken aback. He relaxed back suddenly, pulling out a bottle of sake from hi gi and a small cup, pouring and drinking it suddenly. "Of course, that's only if No-chan doesn't kill me first." he laughed suddenly and shook his head.

"Now now, Saotome, she might react differently, you know how she always wanted a daughter." Soun said with a pat on his shoulder. "Perhaps you could explain some more, Setsuna-san. You seem to have an inkling of what seems to be going on."

"Well, I may be wrong, but Her Highness' personality seems to have taken over your son, memories and partial looks too by the way things seem to stand." Setsuna nodded for a moment. "Though, as for which Queen she is, I'm not sure."

"Hey, wait a second." Nabiki said, holding out one hand while pinching the bridge of her nose with her other hand, trying to think. "Hold on and back up a second. 'Highness'? Ranma? Or whomever this Selene person is? You've gotta be kidding me."

"Hardly." Setsunsa set down her cup. "He, or rather she at ths moment, seems to be the reincarnation of Queen Serenity, of the Moon." She paused at that statement, it didn't seem right somehow. Queen Serenity would normally be addressed as such, not as Selene of which she also took the name instead of the otherway around. "Of course, I could be mistaken on that count." she said reluctantly. "Anyway, going on that train of thought, she was supposedly the ruler of the Silver Millenium, an Empire that spanned this solar system, all the planets being members while Earth was an ally."

"And how do you know all of these things?" Nabiki's eyes were narrowed, she was very suspicious on how this Setsuna woman knew these things.

"I am a scholar after all. You pick up random trivial like that while doing research." Setsuna replied offhandedly, finishing the last of her tea.

Neither of them noticed Kasumi's eyes widening a fraction, it was a subtle thing coming from the eldest Tendo as pieces of the puzzle fell into her mind. She replayed the information in her head and sudden reliazation about those friendly girls from last night seemed to fall into place with several things she had seen on the news. While she seemed oblivious to all things that were going on, Kasumi knew everything that happened within her home and paid very close detail to the most minor of things. She was about to speak up with a question of the girls but Akane suddenly spoke up.

"Well, what's going to happen to my Ranma then?" the youngest daughter demanded suddenly, garnering her glaces from the rest of her family. "Urk...I...I mean..." she started mumbling, her gaze dropping to the table with a blush.

"Waaaahhhh! My baby is growing up!" Soun said half in tears.

Before they could continue, Selene whom was listening to the conversation dejectedly walked back to the table and sat down upon her knees. "I...sorry." she tried to start, cutting into Soun's crying. "The last thing I remember was looking out the window of my room at the Sea before I passed out." she hung her head, trying to clear her thoughts. "The next thing I knew, it felt as if something was exploding inside of me...I saw a boy in my dreams and then I woke up here."

"Your room? You mean you don't remember Beryl?" Setsuna asked softly.

"Beryl? No. I'm afraid not." Selene said with a small smile and a shake of her head.

Setsuna was suddenly thrown for a loop. '_Okay, she's not the Queen. Serenity-chan never once passed out like that. Nor was her room facing the Sea of Serenity. Just whom is this woman?_' Her thought process was going into overdrive. Maybe it was best to look through the Time-Gates and get an idea of what the hell was going on.

"Well, I guess there goes my training today." Akane said with a sigh. She should've known something like this was going to happen. Everytime she managed to pester Ranma into even trying to do something other than jump around her in the dojo, some stupid thing popped up. Of course, it really wasn't Ranma's fault this time. "Guess I need to go put away the weapons."

Selene perked up after hearing Akane mention training. It was something that wasn't sitting and talking, and as much as she enjoyed a good conversation, it was time to get up and do things. "Can I help?"

"Oh, I can handle putting everything away." Akane waved the silver-haired girl off as she stood.

"I mean, with the training." She pressed her lips together, looking up at Akane.

Surprised, all Akane could do was nodded, not sure if she could trust herself to speak.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? You did just wake up from, well, a long coma so to speak." Setsuna added. "You should be a bit more cautious, you aren't used to the body you're in right now."

Selene rolled her shoulders, shrugging it off. "Adapt or die. I'll have to get used to it eventually, might as well start as soon as I can." she paused while she stood up. "Besides, I always have my staff if I really need it." With a flick of her wrist a staff did appear in her hand. Akane and Genma's eyes widening in memory of the thing that appeared.

Gekkaja.

The instrument partially resposible for the death of Saffron, the Phoenix God-King. They both shivered at the memory and Selene nodded, stepping back and wirling it in her hands easily, as if the weapon was apart of her body. Nabiki and Kasumi had scooted back a little, watching in awe at Selene seemingly _play_ with the staff.

"Guess I've still got it." Selene grinned like Ranma for a moment, letting the staff dissipate.

"I'll...meet you in the Dojo then." Akane gulped after a moment. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all? No. She'd go through with it, dammit. Without another word, Akane slipped out of the room and headed down the hall out of sight.

At that, everyone decided it was a good idea to disperse from the main room. Soun and Genma going back to their game of Go from the previous night, Nabiki making her way back to her room to read some manga and Kasumi gliding towards the kitchen to make some snacks for Selene and Akane. It left Selene and Setsuna alone for a moment, the much shorter girl suddenly looking demure and gentle while she looked down at Setsuna whom was still sitting.

"You seem to have some knowledge, Setsuna-chan." the undisguised Senshi of Time arched an eyebrow at the honorific but said nothing of it. "I...well, do you know what could have happened to my daughter? Her name was Serenity..."

"Kami-sama..." Setsuna suddenly breathed. If she wasn't sitting down, she would have collapsed in shock. She knew now whom was standing before her. She knew and suddenly Setsuna felt sick to her stomach. "I'm so sorry to say this...she died defending the Palace from a youma invasion." Setsuna looked at Selene, tears evident in the pig-tailed girls eyes. "I was pretty much the only survivor, your daughter told me to make sure the Time-Gates were not invaded as well. Serenity-chan sealed the leader of the invasion and sent the souls of her killed guardians into the future...one of them is your Grand-daughter."

Selene wiped her eyes, looking down at Setsuna while she continued. "They're all alive now in this time. It's been over ten thousand years since the Kingdom fell, Selene-sama. You've been gone a long time. It was Usgai, your granddaughter was the one that brought you back." Setsuna stood slowly and enveloped the shorter girl in a hug, sobs silently wracking the body of the reincarnated girl.

It took a few moments, but they parted, Selene wiping her eyes and shaking her head resolutely to clear away the mess her mind was in. "Thank you, Setsuna-chan."

"Think nothing of it. Go on now, Akane is waiting for you. I'll contact the girls and have them come over once your head is all cleared up in a few hours." Setsuna nodded and pushed the girl gently in the direction of the Dojo. "It's just down there, you can't miss the other building."

Selene stopped at the hallway and turned with a faint bow. "Thank you." with that she disappeared down the hallway to the dojo.

Setsuna then went to the phone. She had a few calls to make and way to many things to take care of. However, things seemed to finally be looking up.

* * *

_An hour later_.

Akane staggered out of the dojo after Selene and she was in more pain than she thought could be possible from just simple sparring. '_Even if she doesn't remember who she is as Ranma, she's sure tapping his skills...'_ the thought trailed off as she rubbed her backside carefully. She had fallen pretty hard when her legs were sweeped out from underneath her. Not content to just let her fall, Selene had also brought down the borrowed staff across her chest to enforce the impact.

It was kind of ironic in a way, Ranma always tried to fight at their opponents skill level and held back enough to make Akane furious during training, but Selene? Akane would've been beaten black and blue in the hour they were in to Dojo if it wasn't for Kasumi interrupting them for Selene to go talk to someone on the phone. It was a painful lesson in contrast, and Akane vowed she wouldn't be caught off guard. She was also glad they didn't have school anymore as she knew she'd be sporting a black eye soon enough.

The oddest thing was that, even with the weapons Akane noticed that once she had gotten her first and only hit in, Selene stopped thinking and started to move just like Ranma had in their usual fights, but instead of just the odd tap, there was a severe beating waiting.

Of course, Akane simply loved it.

Yet Selene had also been wondering if she was a machoist near the end of their practice spar.

_Flashback:_

_Akane blinked a few times, looking across the Dojo at Ran...no, Selene and tilted her head off to the side while watching her a moment. It seemed while the girl wasn't paying attention, she moved almost like Ranma, but with more grace, more like an actual girl. Ranma moved like a guy even when he looked like a girl, his shoulders were the mark of his movement, but now? She walked with a small sway to her hips like an actual girl. At the same time it confused, annoyed, disgusted and made Akane oddly happy. She pushed the emotions away trying to keep her cool._

_They stared at each other and Selene gave Akane a small curt nod, something must've happened but the girl was no longer in what could be called a good mood. There were no words between them though and Akane used her foot to kick a bo-staff at the girl negligently while she used her foot to kick up the other one into her own hands. Akane had decided to take it easy on the girl, after all, it was Ranma, but at the same time not and she didn't know the skill behind this current personality._

_A frown passed on Akane's lips as she thought about what it would be like if Ranma had a split personality but it was shunted to the back of her mind once she started to move in a circular motion towards Selene, the staff twirling absently in her hands. She continued to watch her silver-haired partner who seemed to be testing the weight of the weapon, giving it a few practice twirls before she nodded to herself and started on the same movements, almost as if she was copying Akane._

_With a small grin on her lips, Akane pressed forward, twirling the staff as she brought the weight of the tip down towards her opponent, it wasn't much of an attack, just a test of the other's defense and was glad to see it Selene's weapon brought up in response, tapping it away and countering with a thrust towards Akane's abdomen. With a shift of her feet, she used the moment of her parried attack to twist into a twirl and try and score a hit to Selene's opposite shoulder._

_Selene watched the attacks coming and decided instead of parrying the second attack to duck under it, using the staff to push herself back a little at the same time, pushing off the ground slightly while getting her stance back, watching Akane smile as she held the staff behind her back in an open stance that invited an attack. Selene knew better of course and decided to take it easy, slowly circling around and narrowing her eyes ever so slightly, her concentration now utterly on the girl before her._

_A moment later and they were clashing once again, the staffs twirling about their bodies as they kept up a back and forth of attacks and defenses. Akane was, like usual, the aggressor in their spar and she seemed to be pressing the smaller girl with a series of quick thrusts of her staff, they were canceled out by a few spins of Selene's own weapon and they parted for half a second before Akane brought her staff across in a swipe towards Selene's face._

_Selene decided to keep with her current defense, bringing up her staff to bat the weapon back the way it came, but at the last second Akane pulled her weapon back, evading Selene's block and used the continuous motion of her staff in it's twirl to smack Selene in the jaw, jarring her and sending the girl sprawling to the floor._

_"Yes!" Akane exulted, the first point going to her for the first time she could remember under her own strengths. Sure there was the other incidents, but she knew they really didn't count. Of course, it probably did stem from the several facts that added up, so this probably didn't count either. First off this wasn't Ranma, this was Selene, she didn't know all of Ranma's moves. Second was that the Tendo-style prefered weapons while the Saotome-style prefered empty fists. If this was a regular spar between them, the same might've happened, or at least Akane had hoped. Ranma might have been proficent and even good with various weapons but the pig-tailed boy wasn't comfortable with them and that made the difference that Akane would use to her advantage since she was good with most weapons and liked using them._

_Of course, the mallet was her favorite weapon and really, to her, the staff was just a mallet without a massive part on the end to bludgeon people and send them flying via Akane Airlines._

_With that, however, she took a step back. She looked down and watched Selene get back to her feet, bending to pick up her weapon and they nodded at each other again. However, the narrowed concentration coming off from Selene seemed to waver. Akane could tell the girl was no longer tense and she finally was starting to relax. She just needed whatever it was beaten out of her and Akane could do that with weapons very well. With a gin, Akane launched another attack at the smaller girl, adding in feignts she never used with her empty fists._

_Selene was having none of it however, and with her control visibly relaxed, her eyes no longer narrowed. The smaller girl was no longer going to be hit, the jarring senstion of being cracked in the face with a hunk of wood was enough to snap her sense and calm the girl down. She finally started to move without thinking, just using her instincts and senses and just as Akane's weapon was going to connect with her face again the pig-tailed girl's form wavered._

'Damn!'_ Akane thought violently as she narrowly avoided a strike to the back of her head by diving forward into a rolk. She didn't even sense Selene coming from behind her, the girl was moving faster than Ranma normally did and it was only the sound of the weapon that gave Akane enough warning to avoid the attack and even then she still felt the edge of the staff touch her hair. It had been to close to her own comfort, and she brought her weapon up suddenly in a double handed defense with just barely able to block the overhead swing Selene had brought down._

_Pushing up with her feet, she slid Selene's weapon to the side and tried to swing her staff into the girl's side but was stopped with a sudden block and the sudden pain in her leg was realized when Selene lashed out with the bottom of her staff, smacking Akane right in the shin while at the same time pushing away her weapon. Akane's eyes widened suddenly as she tried to pull back into a defensive posture but with her arms wide like that, she was wide open for several strikes from Selene as she utterly laid into Akane with quick and brutal strikes._

_It didn't take long for Akane to recover though, the attack was going to leave marks obviously, but the one to her leg hurt more than the ones to her stomach and ribs, limping ever so slightly back as she got her defense back up, watching Selene pull back ever so slightly, a little bit of concern on her eyes. Maybe Ranma was still in there after all. "Don't you pity me!" Akane snarled, suddenly angry, she didn't want concern, she didn't want pity, she didn't want any sadness._

_Akane became the one who started to push Selene again, her attacks furious and fast, but in the state she was in, she thought that since Selene wasn't attacking back that the girl was still pitying her when she was actually defending herself for a good reason. It pushed Akane's anger further, not realizing she was actually winning the current part of their spar. The shorter Selene's eyes started to harden, she was starting to understand was going on and let out a low sigh, letting an attack slip through her defenses on purpose, but avoiding the attack with a shift of her body while pushing her own self forward, suddenly inside of Akane's attacks._

_Twisting around the girl, Selene used her foot to trip up Akane, sending her sprawling to the floor while Selene hopped back a few paces, hoping the girl would calm down. Taking a few seconds to calm herself, she moved back a little ore as Akane groaned while getting up, shaking her head and grabbing onto her weapon. It seemed the girl was muttering under her breath and blushing about something as well. She seemed ashamed as she stood up._

_They continued their spar after Akane took a moment to calm down, but she never got another attack in, yet she never desended into another righteous fury about not being attacked back. They engaged each other in five more seperate little fights. Akane tried to stay her ground, but Selene started to do more than stay on the ground, taking to the air and using their weapons as leverage to add in more strikes to Akane's body. It was then that they stopped for two reasons. The first that during one of her attacks, Akane had tripped up on Selene's staff and instead of taking a blow from the weapon, got part of the smaller girls elbow right to the face near her eye._

_The second reason was that during that little break,while Selene looked at Akane worriedly, Kasumi had called out to Selene saying that someone had called on the phone for her. It didn't take them long to clean up their staffs and with one last look at Akane, whom waved Selene off saying she could take care of herself, she went to go see whom was on the phone. Though the wild grin on Akane's lips did give Selene a little bit of pause. Why would someone enjoy being elbowed in the face?_

* * *

Despite it being Kasumi that had called for Selene, it had been Nabiki whom at picked up the phone while it was ringing. The person on the other end of the phone sounded like a kind old man and asked for Selene with her name. Not usually one to be preturbed, this was still strange to Nabiki. 'Selene' as it were, first appeared with her name this morning, and no one outside of the Tendo Dojo had learned that name quite yet. Yet here it was, someone on the phone knew whom Selene was and was lookng for her. It was so strange that while Kasumi was passing her by, Nabiki managed to utter out, 'You're looking for Selene?" It was all Kasumi needed to go find the transformed Ranma.

Suffice to safe, Nabiki was the only one that found something strange about the entire thing, and when Selene came up to take the phone, Nabiki just handed it to her dumfoundedly.

"Thanks Nabs." Selene said with a small smile as she took the phone.

"Okay, today is officially screwed...wait, Nabs?" Nabiki paused, looking at Ranma/Selene. Now she was starting to get creeped out. "No, forget it..." she muttered, she didn't even want to listen in on the phone conversation like she would have, though Kasumi's voice suddenly distracted her even further.

"Oh my!" Kasumi had indeed uttered suddenly when she saw Akane staggering from the dojo. "Akane, are you okay?"

"Yeah, no big deal Sis." Akane said, leaning against the wall and waving her off.

"I never thought I'd see you like that, little sister." Nabiki said after an giving her younger sister a once over.

"Oh, stuff it Nabiki. I tripped is all." Akane motioned to her eye. It was true. Of course she didn't mention that she tripped onto an elbow.

The entire time, while they were nearby, all three could hear Ra...no, Selene, agreeing on the phone with small noises and she even nodded to the phone a few times. Strange that. Though, she did end off the conversation with a "Ah, whenever would be best. Later today or tomorrow perhaps? Thank you. Goodbye."

Setsuna walked in at that moment, holding another cup of Kasumi's most excellent tea, looking down at Akane with a cocked eyebrow. "Whom was that, dear?"

Selene smiled brightly as she hung up the phone, the next words were a simple reply and it shocked all of them.

"Kami-Sama."

* * *

**Notes from the Author:**

As Kasumi usually says: Oh my.

The reviews from the last chapter were, well, to put it as a vast understatement, very heartwarming. With that, I'd like to say thank you so very much, especially to those that did the compairson to '_Heir to the Empire'. _It and one other set of stories were actually the reason I started writing this in the first place. After reading them, I suddenly got the urge to write again, it's been like 5 years since I had the urge or the muse and it was all because of that one story that I started up again. You have no idea what it means to me to read what you guys have said.

With that said, let's get down to buisness. The next chapter is going to be shorter because I wanted to get this posted, it was originally going to be part of this portion, but I figured this was a better cut off point than to do another 'flashback' to a different part right away. Now let's get to some responses to you guys. I'll go up the list I suppose.

Darth Thanatos: As said above, this was mainly because of you being the first to make that comment. Thank you so very much and I hope you continue to enjoy what I'm writing. Hopefully this chapter was a good surprise and twist for you.

Tribun: I could enver destroy Ranma as a character. He's one of my favorite of all time. After the next short chapter, the 'Changes' part will be starting and you can except the best Martial Artist in Japan to make a grand showing (I hope). Though, I guess with what I've got in my notes...well...you'll have to keep reading and find out.

Love Psycho: Yay cupcakes!

Almech Alfarion: Don't mind one bit, it's nice to keep everything in one place, though the inflation for some reviews does kind of make me look good. XD Though, with the Akane thing, I do have to agree. I don't like pyscho-Akane, but the extremes can be fun. As mention to Tribun, I'm not destroying the Ranma personality at all. I'm just hoping the personality thing isn't a huge shock to people. I thought it'd be interesting to see done, especially with the way I'm taking it.

AnFan-n-More: Since this is my first real work in a while outside of the Evangelion Poems...and a bunch of crap I deleted, I don't have a pre-reader. That and I'm using Wordpad to write all of this down, it makes corrections a little bit harder. Of course, I might find someone, but once I'm actually done the majority of this, I'll be going back and combining chapters to shorten the amount of clicking done. As for the Romance bit, no, I don't write much in the way of that. Admittedly, I'm not that good at writing comedy for the most part so my written works tend to be a bit more dramatic and serious. Will there be a bit of romance here or there? It depends on how long this gets. I do have something planned out between Akane and Ranma, but I'm not sure how far it'll get pushed. I don't subscribe to the 'lemon' (I don't like that word either) theory. If romance happens, it happens, if it leads to the bedtime tango, then so be it...but I'm not going to drop things push towards that point unless it's valid. As for the types of story this is going to be? I have no friggin' clue. There might even be some tragedy thrown in for good measure. As for the notes thing, I manage to get in 15 minutes of writing right before work when I'm waiting for my shift to start, otherwise I don't...and I have a huge problem with getting distracted which is why updates come so slow, or at least for me. Like the rest, thank you for your comments and hope you enjoy where I take this...since I don't even know yet! As for that last quest, to quote a certain famous person: That...is a secret.

That's it for the major comments. To the rest, again, thank you for everything and I hope you enjoy. As stated before, the next chapter will be short and contain another small cross over portion with a few Goddess, though, they won't be showing up until later on in the story outside of this minor bit.

However, despite this being a bit of a crossover, this is mainly a Ranma-centric fic...well, once I get back to Ranma as a whole anyway. I'll probably be adding in other cameos later on as well, but they, like the rest are going to be minor.

See you guys soon!


	8. Chapter 6b: Revelations Final Part

_In another dimension, sometime the night before:_

The Norn Goddess of the Past, Urd, daughter of Kami-Sama and his near opposite Hild, was sitting at her terminal. A bottle of sake floating right next to her as she was reading a book to pass the time. It had been a slow week since she was back on active duty and the Goddess was starting to get bored. She was stuck up here while her dear younger sister Belldandy was out on a date with her boyfriend Keiichi Morisato. Of course, with all things considered...

The thought was quickly pushed to the side as a small warning popped up on the Terminal she was only half paying attention to. '_Huh?'_ Urd thought as she sat up a bit and set her book down. "Man, why couldn't this have happened a week ago?" she grumbled allowed, waving off the attention she was getting from other Goddess' nearby. She wouldn't have had to worry about this and she could've been pushing Keiichi and Bell to the next step in their relationship, maybe with a couple of potions.

However, she finally started to pay attention to what was going on with her terminal. Files were being...reorganized? Outsider access? What the...? Suddenly some files were even starting to re-code themselves and that instantly caused Urd's eyes to widen while she tried to keep up and revert the changes. Yet things were going to fast for her, maybe even to fast for Skuld. With that thought she shook her head suddenly and she smashed down her fist, tagging the alarm button instantly.

"Priority Alert!" she called out as she caught the attention of all the other Goddess' working that shift. "We've got an invasion attempt in the system. Find it and shut it down. Now!" she was all buisness as the three others starting to type furiously at their own terminals. A few others showing up when the alarm was heard and chairs were roating here and there as more joined into try and stop the invasion of Yggdrasil.

Finally, one of them, Peorth oddly enough, called out triumphantly, they had traced the mass file change and surge to an energy source from Earth. Abandoning her own terminal, Urd was instantly by Peorth's side, looking at the reaction. It was a huge beam of life energy lancing out from somewhere in Japan. It had even arced up into the sky and split off into a direction, landing somewhere on the moon.

"What was that?" Urd shook her head, Peorth shrugging in response.

Another voice called out suddenly. "File movements have stopped. I can't access or change anything, I don't have the access restrictions." It was a newer third-class Goddess.

"Fine. I'll do it." Urd said, floating back to her terminal and watched the file being dragged out from the depths of the system while information was slowly being coded in. Urd attempted to put in her own codes and revert the file change, but a sudden notice popped up in blaring and angry red letters. "What do you mean I don't have proper access?" she nearly yelled at the terminal in front of her. Blinking the warning a few more times, the terminal flashed out the restrction requirement. 'First Class, First Category, Unlimited License Only'

Urd bit back a curse. Getting a hold of a God or a Goddess like that would be annoying at best, not even Belldandy fit those descriptions. There weren't many First/First's around anymore. '_Though, maybe calling Skuld...'_ the thought was interrupted by the girl herself as she started shouting about something excitedly and was showing off a different view of that arc of energy from ealier.

"Skuld. I'll talk to you later. I've got it under control." Urd put on her most convincing smile. Skuld was to excited and worried to deal with something that she couldn't even do anything about. Before Skuld could respond though, Urd hung up on her and went back to the file. The alarm still pulsating in the background.

Urd continued to watch, wringing her hands together into fists as the information continued to be imput. The biggest question is why would someone hack into Yggdrasil, pull the file of some long forgotten Goddess from before the War and creation of the doublet system, and reinstate it? Minor information had also been updated. "Sex: Female/Male? That doesn't make any sense. First Class, Second Category, Unlimited License like Belldandy? What is going on with this?" Suddenly the alarm died away and Urd looked away, ignoring the file for a moment as the phone at her terminal rang.

She picked it up suddenly, blinking at the voice on the otherside. The elderly voice on the otherside spoke softly, Urd's eyes widening while other Goddess' started to gather around, their own terminals having been reverted back to what they were doing.

"Yes sir. I understand...but!" she paused, letting out a small sigh and tried to start up her arguement. "But...no...yes. I really do have to..." another sigh. "Yes sir, I understand. Thank you for telling me Kami-sama." She slumped back in defeat and looked at the file, catching the first part of the name.

"Selene..." she started to read aloud before the file closed itself, her eyes not catching what was after the slash. The information had been saved and updated and placed back whereever it had come from. "Oh come on!" Urd let out a dual natured groan of both annoyance and relief came from the tanned Goddess and those around her as well. Then the others went back to their own terminals while the rest filed out of the area.

'_Maybe Belldandy can help me remember who Selene is.'_ Urd contemplated to herself, the name sounded familiar. Yet despite the oddity of the entire ordeal, the really weird parts of the file were the updates about water and the odd restriction notice...

* * *

_The Tendo Dojo in the Present:_

Akane blinked a few times and looked at the girl who just hung up the phone. "Who do you mean, Kami-Sama?" It wasn't that, was it? Nah, couldn't be.

Selene of course tilted her head to the side and blinked a few times. "Kami-Sama is Kami-Sama of course." she smiled, rather Kasumi like while just pointing towards the sky. "Though, I now have another appointment, maybe later today, maybe tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be called again for it before more guests arrive."

Setsuna blinked at that and rolled her shoulders in a shrug before taking a sip of her tea. "There are others coming to see you soon too. They should be here in a couple hours. They wanted to freshen up before they got here and all." the enigmatic woman gave off a small smirk before turning to the figeting Akane. "Do those hurt?" she motioned to the bruises with her free hand.

"Nah. I'm fine." Akane said with a wave of her hand.

"Are you sure?" Selene asked suddenly, she hadn't meant to hurt the girl, but there was just something...

The thought was cut off as Akane nodded, an annoyed look coming to her features. "It's not that, it's something else." she almost sneered but the words came out dejectedly.

"You can tell me, child..." Selene said softly, that Kasumi-esq smile on her face once again.

Akane almost snapped at her, but she remembered her promise at the last second and seemed to just deflate in on herself, much to the surprise of four other girls present. "It's you." she slumped to the floor against the wall and shook her head. "You're not supposed to be Selene. You're supposed to be Ranma. A guy...not a girl..." The cat was out of the bag now.

Selene just frowned, blinking a few times and taking a few steps forward to Akane. "I...sorry about this, but I don't understand."

"You were born a guy, Ranma Saotome." Akane said softly at first, the others straining to hear but her voice gained a little presence and looked at Selene, resolutely telling a much abridged story, mostly taking into account the last month. She talked on an on for almost thirty minutes while Nabiki nodded with Kasumi while they both watched. Setsuna herself was intrigued and she had decided to go check on Ranma's past life when she had a spare moment at the Gates.

"...And you turn from a guy into a girl with cold water and back again into a guy with hot water." Akane finished off dejectedly.

Selene took that all in for a moment, kneeling down beside Akane. "Is it like that man that turns into a Panda?"

"Yes, that's your father, he got cursed in the same place you did." Akane nodded.

Selene smiled while nodding and looking to Kasumi and Nabiki. "Can I get some hot water please?"

Kasumi nodded and walked off to the kitchen, Nabiki helping Akane up as they all went to the main room while the water was starting to boil in the kitchen. "Are you sure about this, Selene?"

"Of course my dear. Though...I'm not sure if it will work." Selene said as she took the offered kettle from from Kasumi. "If anything, it was nice to meet you all." With one last look of resolution, Selene lifted the kettle above her head, closed her eyes and poured the hot water on herself.

With everyone holding their silence, nothing happened at first. It was so strange to the Tendo siblings, it was always an instant change between petite red-head to masculine black-hair and back again. This time though the change on Ranma, or Selene was slow. Their body started to pulsate, giving off energy and started to slowly shift and grow. The silver-haired seeped away into it's usual black color, her breasts grew smaller while his shoulders and muscles grew larger. The last change was that odd upturned moon as it slowly disappeared once all the other changes had finalized.

All in all it took almost thirty seconds for the full reversion to happen, the water having been completely emptied from the kettle but still held in a firm grip by the boy turned girl turned back into boy. Half a second later the boy's eyes snapped open, the blue orbs taking in his surroundings wildly. He lurched back a step when he found Akane was right in front of him. In an instant, he knew what to do.

"Akane, I'm so sorry!" he exclaimed suddenly. "I couldn't stop her!"

With those words, he dropped into the Saotome Secret Attack: Crouch Of the Wild Tiger!

"I didn't mean it. Sorry! Sorry!" he had started to descend into gibberish with each kneeling bow when Akane hauled him up and slapped him right in the face.

Holding tightly onto his shirt, she stared him right in the eye. "Ranma, is that you?"

"Of course it is. You didn't have to slap me you silly Tomboy!" he exclaimed and then shut his mouth after practicing the tactful use of Saotome Style Foot-In-Mout Disease.

Akane glared at him, almost angrily. As she pulled the taller boy closer, she noticed his wince, a small smirk plastering itself on her face. Despite everything, he knew he'd be taking a trip via Akane Airlines in any second. "Oh shut up you baka!" she shouted in his face and hauled him close, kissing Ranma fiercely on the lips.

* * *

**Note From the Author:**

Not going to bother addressing the majority of the comments about the last chapter quite yet. I did mention this one was going to be small as it was originally supposed to be part of the last one and I hadn't planned on working on it at all this week. Dad stopped by though so I managed to score some freetime and, well...here we go.

To the only complaint I had so far...I have to say to you: Nyah!

I did mention I wasn't destroying Ranma. How could I? He's one of my favorite characters. There was no such thing as Ranma's memories going missing. However, another personality taking form in his girl side, well...that's something completely different, now isn't it? Is Ranma back for good? Of course not, where there's water, there's Selene. Of course, that's for now.

Okay, I lied. One comment will be mentioned: The Sigil of the Crescent Moon is the Goddess marking on Selene. XD She doesn't have the rest of her firewalls...of course, that might be due to the restriction despite the UL.

Well, in the end, this is the last part of 'Revelations' and I'll be moving onto 'Changes' It's going to be longer than the first two parts, so much so that I haven't gotten to the end of 'Changes' in my notes. I figure that will be the last of the beginning and we'll move onto the middle of the story. Anyway. Yeah.

Hope that you enjoy the reintroduction of Ranma because this is about to get chaotic.


	9. Chapter 7: Changes Part 1

The empty silence of shock permated the room as Ranma and Akane both realized they were surrounded and being watched while the youngest Tendo kissed her husband to be.

"I...uhm, that is..." Akane splutters out as she pulls back sliding several feet away almost instantly, the same reaction coming from Ranma until they look into each other's eyes and both blush a deep crimson.

"...Well, you see..." Ranma trailed off and blinked a few times, coughing into his fist suddenly before shaking his head and letting out a long deep sigh before closing his eyes and trying to go over his memories. The entire room chattering suddenly for a moment as he does until things finally calm down a couple of minutes later.

It was then he opened Ranma opened his eyes, watching someone he, for some reason, knew as Setsuna come up and give him a once over. "How do you feel?" she asked softly, looking a little confused herself.

Ranma just shrugged it off with another frown. "Fine really, my headache is gone for the most part. Finally." He paused a moment and let his shoulders roll into another shrug. "Memories are a lot more clear now though. I can tell the difference too, but some of them are still kinda fuzzy. Kinda weird, y'know?" With a sigh, the Aquatransexual moved over to the table and dropped down into a sitting position while rubbing his temples. "This is some conf..." he trailed off and gaped, looking over by Setsuna.

"What? What's wrong?" Setsuna frowned, looking over her right shoulder, not seeing anything, but it seemed Ranma was ignoring her as he went on.

"What the hell is going on? How'd we split?" Ranma narrowed his blue eyes and with that everyone looked where he was looking, seeing exactly what Setsuna was looking at.

Nothing at all.

Was Ranma losing it?

"Wha'd'ya mean, 'you don't know'?" Ranma frowned, ignoring everyone around him while concentrating on that same spot.

"Ranma...?" Akane asked

"Well, this is just confusing. You don't know at all?" Ranma continued to ask, ignoring Akane.

"Ranma?" Akane asked again, a bit more urgent.

"Ugh, this is making my head hurt more." He continued.

Annoyed now, Akane raised her voice angrily, "RANMA!"

"WHAT?!" He screamed right back.

"Who are you talking to?" Akane asked, clenching her jaw.

Ranma blinked a few times, confused all of a sudden. "That Silver-haired girl." He frowned at Akane and looked back at the spot again. "Selene, ain't it?"

"Er...Ranma?" Nabiki finally spoke up.

"Yeah, Nabs?" This was starting to get really confusing for the Martial Artist.

"Don't call me that. Now, how do I put this?" Nabiki tapped her chin for a few seconds, muttering for a moment. "Well, the thing is, there's no one there."

"Huh?"

"Eloquent as always, Saotome."

* * *

_A Moment Ago_

The water poured over Selene's head, causing the girl to close her eyes to keep the water out as she felt something pull her away and push her back into the darkness. Unlike the last time she felt the pull of nothingness come to clame her, she fought the urge to just sleep this time, she fought with all her power and might as she stumbled towards the light, tumbling forward as the world reappeared around her. Yet something felt off, as if this wasn't exactly where she should be. An odd feeling of vertigo as she looked around, her eyes passing by those around her as they fell upon the sole teenaged male there.

"...Ranma?" she asked confused, what was going on? Was this suposed to be possible?

"What the hell? How did we split?" Ranma asked as his brilliant blue eyes narrowed as they caught sight of her.

Selene ignored the looks she was getting, even if they all seemed off center still, she was sitting across from him, clear as day. "I...honestly have no clue." She said with a faint shrug.

The pig-tailed teen frowned as they looked back at each other, "Wha'd'ya mean, 'you don't know'?"

"Exactly what it sounds like of course." Selene responded calmly, ignoring the girl Akane's rising voice.

"Well, this is confusing. you don't know at all?" Another frown on his lips, it didn't really suit his face, Selene noted oddly.

"Sorry, Ranma. I have no clue. I have a bit of an idea, but nothing concrete." She said softly, looking down at her hands, wringing them in her lap.

"Ugh, this is making my head hurt." Ranma mumbled.

"Again, huh?" Selene asked, almost wryly.

She decided to instantly ignore the outburst coming from Akane, retreating into her own thoughts as she tried to figure out what exactly was going on. It had been a long time since she had been alive after all, well, was this really alive? Everything was so very confusing to her right now, all she knew that she inhabited a mortal boy's body now, and that was only when cold water was applied. Yet, even then, why was she out here like this, seemingly only visible to Ranma by all other accounts, and yet when she was in control, she had heard nothing from the boy. She pressed her fingers to her lips and looked at him again. He was the one in that last bit of darkness, she knew it now.

Why had they kissed anyway?

Why had she thanked him?

Everything was so confusing, so different, and strange.

She finally looked away from her own lap, trying to catch the gaze of the Senshi of Pluto but to no avail.

Setsuna however did, after a moment look down towards Selene as if she noticed something, but looked away after a moment and continued to watch the mounting conversation and more than likely subsequent arguement that would come. She was unpreturbed by the events that were unfolding before her. After all, when you're as old as Setsuna Meiou, nothing fazes you anymore.

* * *

An hour later, the girls known as the Sailor Senshi were arriving, with that information, Ranma had somewhat fled to the Dojo, stretching and working out the frustration in his body while Selene had walked behind him silently. It was almost as if she was floating instead of walking as well, but she was suddenly in a lot better mood while she had thought. After all, it wasn't everyday you'd get to see a grandchild, for the first time nontheless, you never knew you had more than tenthousand years into the future after you had died.

However, a moment later, Selene and Ranma were alone in the Dojo, sure the girls would be here in several minutes, but Ranma had wanted some alone time first before being assaulted by the questions he didn't have answers to. So he did what he usually did to let off some steam, going through kata's slowly in a meditative mindset, all the while keeping an eye on Selene.

A moment passed by in silence before Ranma let out a small laugh. "Y'know. Hopefully when the water hits again, we ain't going to be unconcious for several hours again."

Selene nodded sagely, giggling a little as she really did start to float there while watching him. There was a faint smirk on his lips. "And if I wasn't so used to the weird shit in my life, I'd be spooked out right now."

"Now, now, Ranma, watch your language. I am a Lady after all." Selene said mock imperiously, trying to take the edge off causing the boy to laugh mid-kata.

"Gomen, gomen." He said graciously. "Still, wonder why no one can see ya but me. Kinda odd, innit?"

"True." Selene paused, thinking it through some more as she had for the past hour. "I think I might just be in your subconcious though. Though, since I am aware, and I have a different perspective than your eyes, we might both be tapping some of my powers."

"Powers?" Was all Ranma could ask, grunting as he dropped into a squat, watching the floating girl wave him off.

"Not important." She said with a half smile.

It didn't really bother Ranma much after giving it some thought. It seemed less insane when compared to talking to a voice inside of your head, even if there wasn't much of a difference. In this case he at least had a visual, something to look at. It could've been worse too, after all, it wasn't as if she was one of those demon-spawned, four-legged abominations that peoople like to have as pets. Ranma instantly pushed that away from his mind as he'd rather eat a combination of Akane and Kodachi's cooking than think about those things.

Snapping out of his reverie, he looked over at Selene as something caught his attention, having missed what she had just said. "Huh?" Rather eloquent as usual.

"Oh, I was just saying, to you, I guess I'm actually here. Somewhat." Selene said after a moment, floating over and actually grabbing his right hand, lfiting it and giving a squeeze. "I can't touch anything I believe, outside of you that is. I don't think I could move something even as small as a piece of parchment."

"Parchwhat?" Ranma blinked.

"Something you can write on." She said with a roll of her eyes.

"We call that paper now." Ranma said with a mock sneer.

Hah! He _was_ superior in something!

"Wait." Ranma said suddenly, a mischevious thought coming to his head. "How much can you affect me?"

"I'm...not sure really." Selene arched a single silver eyebrow over that the pig-tailed teen. "Why, what do you have in mind?"

"Oh...just an experiment." With that, Ranma's lips twisted into a wicked grin. "Punch me as hard as you can."

"Wait." Selene held up her other hand to forestall anymore words as she dropped Ranma's from her grip to rub her forehead slightly. "What...?"

"I mean it. Punch me as hard as you can." Ranma said simply.

Selene just gave Ranma a blank look at first and let out a small and low sigh. "Before I do that, you'll have to explain. I'm not one for just doing things without a reason."

"Well, I figure, since right now you are me. In some twisted roundabout way that isn't really much of a surprise in my life..." His voice meandered off with a polite cough, even Ranma could learn tact after a while it seemed. "You should have some of my skills, if not memories, especially like this. I mean, I'm getting your memories..." he started to trail off into a tangent this time.

"Ranma, the point?" Selene asked gently.

"Training." He suddenly said seriously. "Normally I have to wait for Pork Butt to show up to even get a warmup going, but ever since he started on this 'nice' kick of his and Mousse is finally stopped being an idiot, the only person I really have to work with is Pops an' he doesn't like actually going up to that level much."

"Alright, alright." Selene said with a nod, giving an odd look to Ranma. "I'll punch you, but in exchange, try to think before you speak. I mean, really. 'Mousse is finally stopped'? That makes absolutely no sense."

"Yeah yeah, don't twist your panties into a wad." Ranma retorted, suddenly grunting in pain as a fist connected with his stomach.

"The only panties anyone wears in here are you, Ranma." Selene said with another smile, pushing herself hard into the blow as her fist slammed into Ranma's stomach. "I don't wear any." she continued haughtily.

Ranma half blushed and half grinned in excitement, though each for a seperate reason, of course if anyone had heard, they'd've taken his response in the wrong way and yet, for once it didn't happen. Maybe his luck was finally on the up and up. "I bet it's because you can't get anything up past those fat legs of yours." he replied cooly.

Selene's eyes narrowed in a cold and furious manner. "Did you just call me fat?" She brought her hand back and suddenly punched towards Ranma again, this time intent on decking good and hard.

With a single hop, Ranma was out of the way, his eyes filled with mirth as he absently scratched his chin. "Hmm. I suppose I did at that." he grinned even more widely at Selene.

"Ranma Saotome. Prepare to _DIE_!" Selene shouted as she launched herself at current container of her soul, barely missing him while ignoring the somewhat shocked look in his eyes.

"Ah, sweet memories." Ranma said with a sigh of enjoyment, the shock disappearing from his eyes quickly. It wasn't what she said, no that was kind of funny really. It was just that she was as fast as he was when he was in his female form. "This ought to be good." he murmured.

Thus, the fight was on!

Soon enough, the sound of combat reverberated throughout the Dojo yet only one combatant was seen by the bunch of girls that had shown up. The first group of Hotaru, Haruka and Michiru were sitting down in the Dojo while Akane was leaning against the doorframe, watching just in case. Admittedly they also all had impressed looks on their faces as they watched Ranma duck, weave, and counter an invisible opponent. It had gone from simple kata, past shadow boxing to an all out fight between Ranma and, well...no one.

None of the girls really knew what to say, nor did they want to interrupt what the pig-tailed teen was doing.

A moment later the rest of the girls had shown up in a large group and they were ushered in by Kasumi so they could silently watch what was going on as well. They stayed on the sidelines and watched intently, their eyes combing over Ranma and what he was doing.

Ranma himself wasn't even paying attention to anyone else in the dojo. His focus was simply on the one before him that no one else could see. The petty quips in the pre-fight had been tossed out the window and it had been turned into one of the few serious spars he ever had. This was more technical then what he usually did and it was far more interesting to him. Of course, the insults had done their job significantly well in the first few moments, but now they just weren't needed and his opponent was as calm as could be.

A smirk passed over Ranma's lips as he hopped back a few steps as he nodded at the girls before turning back towards his focus with a simple beckon of his hand.

* * *

Selene had glared at Ranma, the opening cracks were no longer verbal and now just physical and even mentally, especially since the girls had shown up to watch. The best part was that she could respond verbally and he couldn't say a damn thing without looking like a complete fool. Yet the smirk on his lips would normally lead to futher fury on her part, Selene had finally realized the point of what he was doing, especially when she finally got a glimpse of one of his training memories.

Ducking under a quick backhand and pushing herself backwards to avoid being snap-kicked, she shook her head in wry wonderment at the memory of Genma telling Ranma the two most important skills and ideas that were contained within their side of the School.

_

* * *

_

"Boy, the first thing you need to remember.

Everything_ is training." Genma place particular emphasis on the word everything as he looked down at his four year old child. A quick glance to Nodoka on the porch, watching the two. "Whatever you do, it can be made into a training exercise."_

_"Like what Daddy?" the pre-cursed, pre-neko-ken boy asked._

_"When walking, treate it as a balance exercise." Genma leaned down to pick Ranma up and put him on the fence. "Any fence you come across can be used to check your balance. Now go on." Ranma grinned brightly as he took a few steps and stumbled, being caught by Genma, a few more tries and he was already getting the hang of it before enma scooped him off the fence and back into their yard. "With that, I'll start training you on the first and most important part of our style."_

_Ranma didn't say anything, he just looked up and nodded._

_"It is a time honored skill, meant to confuse and anger your opponent into a rash move without thinking. The moment one loses their cool in a fight, they have started down the pathway to their loss." Genma intonted dramatically, he did have a flair for this kind of thing after all._

_"What does that mean?" Ranma asked quizzically, blinking a few times and looking to the side back towards the house. He was starting to get hungry now, after all, breakfast had already been a full half an hour ago._

_"It means, m'boy that I'm going to teach you the first skill of the Saotome School of Anything Goes, Chant of the Vile Mosquito!" Genma grinned down at his child, having come up with a fancy name for it just within the past month._

_"What does that mean?" Ranma asked a second time in a row, looking blank at his father._

_"It means I am going to teach you how to trash talk." Genma nodded resolutely, scooping his son up once more and bringing him back to the house and Nodoka. "After a snack, of course."_

_"Yay!"_

* * *

Selene snickered at the end of the memory while retaliating with a counter blow to Ranma's chin which he just leaned back out of. "Well, now I know where you learned that." She continued to make small talk and only barely managed to avoid being punched in the face. "Seriously though? Chant of the Vile Mosquito? What was your father thinking of?"

Ranma narrowed his eyes at his female half across from him and stepped into his next set of attacks, deciding to add in some more kicks and somehow they both managed to go airborne. They continued to trade punches and kicks while Ranma rebounded off the floors, walls and roof while Selene had started to do the same, prefering to stay a bit more in the air due to the fact that she could float.

Several minutes later, they were still going at it, and Ranma was finally starting to lose just a little bit of steam. Of course, that was from the lack of food after all, or at least he so thought and now Selene was starting to get blows in, of course the same had been said of Ranma, but the watching crowd couldn't tell about those.

They could however tell that the prodigy of Martial Arts was taking blows in the face every time he was in the air, they were scant few, but they were visible and one was almost bone-jarringly loud. They didn't know it, but Selene had managed to get a roundhouse in past Ranma's guard, causing his trajectory to shift and instead of the wall, he had to drop to the floor a little bit stunned.

With a quick shake of his head to clear his senses he looked up and everyone saw his eyes widen.

"Oh shit..." he murmured and his arms blurred upwards in a barely managed defence and everyone heard it that time, mainly because the floor had creaked and split from the impact, forcing Ranma's legs to buckle just ever so slightly before he reached up and grabbed the offending attack, a spiralling axe-kick that just barely missed his head.

With one foot grabbed however, the second foot came in and rammed itself against his forehead, pushing Selene out of his grasp and back to the floor. She settled down into another stance of Ranma's but paused when he raised his hand to wave it off.

"I'm done, I'm done." He said wryly. "Of course, this just means I'm going to win the rematch."

The girls watched him as he talked to no one, they couldn't hear Selene's reply, just like the others, though it was just a simple thank you.

"Yeah yeah. No big deal. I should've known though. Yer faster than me, strength ain't useful if ya can't hit anything." He rubbed his jaw and looked at where Selene was standing, watching her float over until he had the girls back in his sight again. "Oh, sorry about that, forgot you all were here." He frowned a moment. "You're the girls from...yesterday, right?"

"Yeah, they're the ones." Akane said from the wall, looking over at her husband to be. "Ranma, what the heck was just going on?"

Ranma facepalmed rather suddenly and started to run his hand through his hair. "Yeah, yeah, y'told me so." he muttered, not giving Selene the dignity of a glance.

"Well, you gonna explain?" Akane asked, trying to keep her cool.

"Gimme a minute 'Kane. I need to still work this crap out." Ranma let loose a little sigh and flopped to the ground, rubbing his jaw which ahd started to ache from the roundhouse from ealier. "Well, I guess the thing is..." he trailed off and his eyes went out of focus for a moment to think. "What y'just saw was me and her sparrin'. Me and Selene o' course."

"Wait...aren't you Selene?" Akane blinked at that, even Setsuna had raised an eyebrow.

"Kuso, this is complicated. Well, yes and no I guess. Ugh." He twisted his head to the side. "Y'know, you could help me explain this."

The unheard Selene just shrugged.

"No help at all." Ranma mumbled and let his eyes half close. "Anyway. Right now I'm jus' Ranma..."

"We know that, Dummy." Akane grumbled.

"Let me finish ya Silly Tomboy. Now as I was sayin' I'm Ranma, as Shampoo would say 'Male-type.' Right?" He didn't wait for any answers and just went on, "Right. Anyway. Right now Selene is 'Female-Type'. Standard explination of the curse would mean; Hot Water equals me an' Cold Water equals her." He sighed and dropped his hands to his lap as he continued to sit Indian-style. "When I'm out, I guess y'could say, I can see her, talk t'her and we can physically interact, she just edged me out in that spar and fer some reason, ain't no one that can see her."

He let that sink in and blinked as Usagi raised her hand. "This ain't school y'know."

She had the decency to blush at that and let loose a small giggle. "Sorry. But do either of you know what's going on?"

Ranma tilted his head to the side and blinked a few times. "She says no. I bet it has t'do with Gekkaja. I turned it on and used it a fight with Saffron. Sent an Ice Tornado straight down his throat too." He growled darkly at that for a moment. "I mean, what kind of thing can make a group of ice shards when it comes in contact with somethin'? It's an artifact of sorts and it was hers. Knowin' my luck it had a portion o' her soul in it."

"So you activated it, fought and beat..."

"...Killed..."

Usagi gulped at that, looking a little nervous at the way Ranma's voice had gone dead. "...Killed that Saffron person, and then what?"

"Me an' Magic apparently have this thing. I try to go about my day, Magic tries to screw with me and mine." He said while pointing at Akane. "Magical Curse, Magical Mirror Clones, Magical friggin' Mushrooms. Magical Ghost...hellspawn of a furred devil." He coughed at that last one, getting raised eyebrows from everyone.

"...Cat, he means."

They all watched Ranma tense and shudder at the word. "No, furry hellspawn devils." he said adamantly.

"Go on, Ranma." Setsuna said with a wave of her hand. Maybe this was something she'd have to try and check out.

"Anyway, normally I can tell when magic starts comin' around, but it got silent since the _Incident_." he paused with a sad smile on his face, he really wished that day had gone through now. "Yet I could tell there was something off. Had a talk with Akane couple days ago and tried to do some meditatin'. The weird feelin' was, like usual, magic. Yet I felt it inside of of me instead of the usual chaotic crap that happens about here."

"For some reason, things seem to ramp up after a bit of quiet." Akane said softly. "Before Saffron, the biggest thing other than the Jellyfish King was the Mirror thing with your two clones."

"...That was creepy." Ranma nodded in agreement. "Wait, doesn't meeting 'Natsu count?"

"Not really, that was standard fare really." Akane pointed out.

"You mean other than the fact that 'Natsu's a ninja?"

"Point."

"Anyway, we're getting off topic..." Setsuna made a gentle cough into her fist.

"Right, sorry." Ranma bowed his head ever so slightly. "Where was I?"

"Meditating a couple days ago." Ami brought up.

"Yeah, that. I don't do that much, but I figured, 'why the hell not', y'know? Ain't like I got nothin' worse to do." Some of the girls winced at his double negative but didn't bother intruding on what he was saying, even if it was the truth. "Figured it out, went to talk to the Old Bat, saw you three. Then kicked Taro's ass and sent the Old Letch through a wall." He didn't bother bringing up the fact that he knew they were those girls in those short skirts and weird suits. He didn't want Akane's fist in his face, even if she was doing a good job. "Got home, y'did that thingy with the white light and I woke up floating all naked like in the back o' my own head watching as some chick take the reins and I can't do squat about it. Don't know how we managed to sleep through that first change, might o' been her soul int...inte...interg..." Ranma trailed off with a frown befor chosing a smaller word. "...Mixxin' with mine. Somehow it went with several hours down t'half a minute. Haven't switched back yet since then, since y'er all here though, I think she wants to actually talk t'ya instead of jus' starin' at blondie there." he gestured towards Usagi with a simple flick of his head, getting an annoyed look and glaring off to the side, more than likely at Selene. "I can talk jus' fine."

The girls all sweatdropped at that, Akane shaking her head at the same time and stifiling a smile.

With a small sigh, Ranma pulled out a thermos from his small hidden space and popped the lid off with a quick flick of his wrist before looking at the girls. "Here goes. Someone catch me if I fall."

With that, Ranma upended the cold water over his head and the change to Selene started to happen. Like before it was no longer instantly, now it was a slow change that everyone got to see. Ranma's features melting away as his frame shortened and shrunk, massive shoulders disappeared into slender ones while his chest started to expand slowly. The black hair fading as the roots went from black to silver. There was a minor addition this time as a few strands even started to turn a faint pinkish color, as if they were highlighting the rest. Even though the aquatransexual was sitting, everyone could see the inches coming off everywhere, her upper body shortening along with her limbs and arms. The oddest part of the change was how she froze as soon as the first bit of water hit her head, the thermos held solid and her limbs unmoving, it was as if she was no longer breathing as well.

Just shy of half a minute later, the change was complete, the thermos was empty and soaking wet Selene had now switched places with Ranma. She set the thermos down gently, adjusting her clothing ever so slightly and shifted her posture to kneel like someone that had been to do so properly. Her eyes fluttered over as she looked down at her hands and shook her head ever so slightly to get her orientation back. Being yanked from a spot a few feet away to where she was sitting was just slightly disconcerting.

"Intriguing." Selene murmured, blinking her eyes a few times to clear the water as she looked around at the girls surrounding her with a small smile, pushing some of the stray strands of hair back behind her ears, leaving the small water droplets to cascade down her chin and throat as if it didn't bother her. "It's good to finally speak to the rest of you."

Then the Hammer _dropped_.

"My name is Selene. Goddess of the Moon."

* * *

**Notes from the Author:**

Er, well, the main thing is, sorry about taking forever and a day to get this posted. Lost my notebook for a good while, then I got sick several times and I just had my birthday last week. A clusterfuck of bad timing really. I'm still working on this and stuff though, and inbetween this story and _A Moment Gone Awry_, this one somewhat hit the backburner. Sorry 'bout that. Hopefully the next update will come across sooner than later, but it'll probably be after I update _Moment_. The hardest part about writing Ranma stories, to me, is that I have a problem with hand to hand combat, I'm better at weapons combat and invasion scenarios in a warlike setting. I wrote Star Wars RP for like a decade and all, so that helps. XD

Again, pardon me for the spelling and grammar errors that more than likely find their way into my texting and I hope you enjoy reading this. With that last bit of shellshock we're coming up on the end of the beginning of the story and all the introductions. Ryoga's going to make another improptu appearance soon enough too.

Hope your April is going good, drop a review if you have the time.


	10. Chapter 8: Changes Part 2

_In Another Dimension:_

Within a building, hidden away someplace, a trio of people sat, all looking at the same document that one had brought. They were sitting at a rather ornate table within an oddly unassuming room. Their chairs were also matching with the table with other such chairs littered about the large table as well. The majority of the seats being empty and all on the other end of a table so that the three could sit close together and converse about what they were going over.

"What in Hild's name is this?" One of them hissed after finally reading it over for a third time, throwing it down in disgust. "That poison ended her existence long ago and she shouldn't exist."

"We know that." One of the other two said with a weary sigh. "This is an official update from Yggdrasil that I managed to sneak by."

"What I'd like to know is how her soul managed to survive all these years." The third, a female, growled lowly. "That was what the virus went after, her very soul."

"Well, we can't very well go and kill her again, not with the Doublet System." The second sighed again, slumping down in his chair.

"Damn the Doublet system and damn the Truce." The first hissed once more. "She might not have an opposite yet, and if we strike soon enough, we can destroy her and her kin."

"Are you sure that is wise?" The second asked.

"As long as Hild-sama doesn't find out." The third growled lowly again, this time with a bark of laughter. "I say we prepare to strike soon."

"Fine. We can't waste any Mazoku though...we'll need someone to conjure up some Youma." The second had a hint of a smile on his face.

"Don't worry, I have just the person to abuse." The first grinned, his teeth sharp and shiny.

All three chuckled once again as they planned some more. They didn't care if this started a war, after all, that's what the enjoyed. Suffering and Death to the end.

* * *

"My name is Selene. Goddess of the Moon."

An understatement would be to say that everyone was shocked at that kind of revelation. A few of the Senshi were trying to work their jaws from off the floor while some of the others just kind of stared. Usagi was a combination of the two, shocked beyond belief really.

Akane didn't really seem to be phased. Honestly, this was Nerima.

Suddenly Usagi's brain rebooted and she started to splutter out words. "Wait, what? How? You're really...? But what about...?" she trailed off, looking to the rest of her Senshi for support but got blank looks instead. Even Setsuna blinked owlishly at her. Finally, a bit more brain power entered the arena and Usagi steeled her resolve. "Does that mean you're Queen Serenity too?" Oh, please, let it be so...

The reaction Selene gave to that question was a sad smile and a shake of her head. "I am afraid not, my dear."

"Oh..." Usagi sounded so very disappointed at that.

Then the second hammer dropped.

"My only daughter was named Serenity. Named for which the sea upon the moon which I loved so dearly, and where near she was born."

This got a new round of stares, and even Akane joined in on this time. Akane, however did her usual Akane like thing and mentally over-reacted, going through a bunch of scenarios in her head that had nothing to do with the situation. She had started to splutter, her face going slightly red at the thought of Ra...

Suddenly, the youngest Tendo daughter froze in her thoughts and tracks, her face going pale. _'Not Ranma, Selene. Not Ranma, Selene. Not my Martial Artist but the Goddess of the Moon_.' Ranma didn't do anything, it was all Selene. '_But it's his body!' _she mentally screamed at herself. Well, his female body at least, but that wasn't the point, was it? It was the same voice, though refined, same looks, though with silver hair instead of red...then again, that golden upturned crescent moon on her head...

Then Akane realized all attention was on her from her spluttering, "S-sorry, old habits die hard." Her voice was weak, but she was telling the truth. A little smile formed, though it was mostly half-heartily, as she motioned a little towards Usagi. "I think she has some more questions though."

The smile that lit Usagi's face could have brightened a room, however it turned a bit more serious as she looked over at the silver haired teen. "What happened to you then...? All any of us..." she trailed off, looking at Akane for a split second, but she also saw Selene just smile sadly, though, even that emotion didn't reach her eyes as they seemed to lose a little light.

"Even as a Goddess, I fell ill, it can happen to the best of us." She still had that soft smile on her lips. "My daughter, Serenity, filled in where she could. In the end, however, I died." There it was really, cut and dry, just like that. Though, the blood of sadness was somewhat as she direct her gaze towards Setsuna. "While I was bedridden, my daughter befriended a girl her age that had been brought to the Moon. The girl's father and I were good friends. His name was Khronos and he knew I was dying, and to help ease the pain of my daughter, he bought his own so they would hopefully become friends. In one of my last few days, I watched them playing together and I knew my daughter wouldn't be alone after I had died." Finally, Selene bowed her head low, a few tears in her eyes. "Thank you for being there for my daughter, Setsuna, I am in your debt, more than you could possibly ever know."

There was silence between all involved again.

Selene getting up and moving towards the green-haired Senshi of Pluto before wrapping the taller woman in an soft embrace and for the first time since her best friend had died, saving them all from destruction, she openly wept. Tears streamed down her face as she whispered, "Thank you..." over and over and over.

They smiled at each other before Selene pulled away, looking to the other girls in turn as they all introduced themselves, from the first planet to the last. She thanked every single last one of them for what they had done before it finally came to Usagi who had her head bowed down, her own tears streaming on her face as she gave her own introduction. "Usagi Tsukino, Daughter to Serenity. It's good to meet you...Grandmother."

Akane chewed on her thumb as she watched the scene unfold before her. She could barely believe what was going on, and if it wasn't for past experience she sure as heck wouldn't've believed. Even after Saffron and all that nonsense, it was still hard to even think the way she was. After they got home and now this transformation change of Ranma's, a lot of different things were invading her mind that she just didn't want to think about. In fact, due to the way she was acting, she had caught a few of those girls looking at her with hesitation.

At least Ranma wasn't hugging the exotic green-haired lady now, but it was almost worse in that Ranma was now hugging the blonde girl with the same blue eyes as his. '_No, She's hugging Selene, not Ranma hugging her_.' Yet at the same time, she had the strange urge to 'beat the pervert', after all, this was _her _Ranma! Another stray thought invaded her mind about was just said a moment ago. '_But she's her Grandmother, right? Aren't they the same age? ARGH! This doesn't make any sense..!'_

Of course, Akane had been thinking the wrong things when it came to the other girls. She thought they would look at her as competition which was far from the truth...well, Minako briefly considered it until she watched the transformation. Ranma was a total hunk after all...but besides that!

"Maybe...we should show her?" Usagi asked, breaking into everyone's thoughts.

"Show her what?" Selene asked with a cant of her head.

Everyone blanched at that. Were the Senshi active back then? Probably on some planets, but who would need Senshi for a Galactic Kingdom being ruled by a Goddess? Case in point, that might be why Earth didn't currently have a Senshi after all. Though, the looks from the girls caused Selene's mind to stir at the implications and she gave the girls all a critical eye and thought back to what she had seen in some of Ranma's memories before the first transformation.

"Akane." She spoke suddenly.

"Yeah...?" The Tendo asked nervously.

She eyed the teen with a critical eye for a moment. "What gets said in here, stays in here. If Nabiki talks about this to anyone, lives will be in danger, and I mean the lives of people that can't protect themselves like those here in Nerima can."

Akane gulped and nodded her head in agreement at that.

"Now, you are all the...Senshi. Correct?" Selene turned her gaze back to the pack of girls, ignoring Akane's small gasp. "Planetary Warriors, usually a Senshi, though in some odd cases, someone else may appear." She gestured to the girls for Akane's sake. "All assembled have their own guiding force and unlike regular humans, they use Mana as a source of their power." She paused and looked over them with a tilt of her head. "Apologies, but I'm not sure which planet each of you rely on, outside of my Granddaughter and Setsuna that is."

"Yes." Ami spoke up. "Ami Mizuno, Senshi of Mercury."

"Minako Aino, Senshi of Venus."

"Rei Hino, Senshi of Mars."

"Makoto Kino, Senshi of Jupiter."

"Hotaru Tomoe, Senshi of Saturn." There was a brief pause as Selene looked almost guilty at the youngest teen who just had a sad smile on her face before the others continued

"Haruka Tenou, Senshi of Uranus."

"Michiru Kaiou, Senshi of Neptune."

"Setsuna Meiou, Senshi of Pluo."

"Usagi Tsukino, Senshi of the Moon."

Akane was stunned. "Howbuwha?"

Selene smiled at that. "Well, there's no sense in wasting the day away. Akane, could I have the hot water? It would not be fair to have Ranma cooped up until I have my meeting."

"O-o-of course." Akane babbled and quickly got up, rushing out of the room.

Selene continued to smile until Akane was out of the room, then her features straightened and the smile dropped. "It is good to see you all, but I'm afraid my appearance will cause complications for you."

"Grandma?" Usagi asked softly.

"Simply, I should not exist. I don't know why I exist, and I do not wish to put your hopes up...after my meeting, I might continue my non-existence." She spoke in a matter of fact tone, as if she was discussing the weather.

"No!" Rei burst out. "We can't allow something like that to happen!" The others all agreed with her sudden decree, even if Setsuna was strangely quiet about it. "We'll beat up anyone who tries to take you away."

"Oh?" Selene arched a silver eyebrow and smoothed back her pigtail slowly. "You would beat up Kami-sama himself?" Several of the girls paled at that. "Yes, that is whom I am meeting with, children." She got up and moved closer towards the group, giving a shocked Rei a gentle embrace. "Actions speak louder than words, however, sometimes one most know when to proceed quietly and accept the situation. If Kami-sama wills it, I will embrace his choice." A sad smile flickered it's way onto Selene's lips at that. "Of course, if I could, I would be honored to stay." Another soft pause before she continued. "That may not be the only problem. Because of what I am, until a final choice is made, we may be attacked by Mazoku."

"Demons?" The girls eyes all widened.

"Hai. Oh thank you for the water, Akane."

"N-no problem."

"Where was I? Oh yes. Mazoku might be willing to attack. I know not what has transpired in the past, and they are more than likely to send Youma, or worse, to my mana signature. It might be best if I was just hidden away for now." With that, she upended cup of hot water over her head while closing her eyes.

Like last time, the transformation seemed to be fighting something foreign and nothing seemed to happen at first. Slowly Selene turned into Ranma as their height grew and female details gave way to male ones. The change seemed to speed up after a few more seconds and finally stopped after a full twenty in total. When Ranma opened his blue eyes, he looked at all the girls who were staring at him with wide eyes, blinking his own a few times and getting a confused look on his face. "What?"

Selene's ghostly whisper answered his question, but it didn't seem to be acknowledged. Usagi seemingly pulled out a small compact from nowhere and that's when the words finally penetrated his brain.

The change was supposed to be full and complete. This last one was not. Oh sure, his body was fully male, his features were all his and his alone, but there were a few minor differences. Changes that shouldn't exist but still did, and suddenly Ranma wasn't so sure of things anymore. There were two standout visual differences in what should have been. His black hair now had strands of silver clumped together here and there, as if he dyed it somehow or another. The second big difference was his forehead, and the upturned crescent moon had not fully disappeared, it had just faded and looked like it was an outlined scar upon his head.

The last difference was not an outwards appearance but an inwards one that only Ranma could feel, and it made him feel...off. Something had changed, something was different, something was really freaking weird. He felt lighter somehow, better, maybe even faster and stronger, and there was something else, a feeling he didn't really understand at first. Then it finally came to him.

Ranma Saotome felt...happy?

The sudden sensation of elation was quickly consumed by a sense of dread as he once again went over his features and spoke without thinking. "Man...what else can go wrong?" Finally, Ranma realized what he said and let out a low groan of annoyance at his own stupidity and the sensation pinching at the back of his neck.

The gathered Senshi, and one fiance blinked a few times at Ranmma before they all heard a shout of "Now where am I?" With that being yelled, Ryoga turned the corner and promptly walked into the Dojo, Ranma facevaulting with a full body twitch.

"Ryoga? What are you doing here?" Akane asked.

"Akane? Why are you in Hokkiado?" The Lost Boy queried, causing the Tendo to sweatdrop at that.

"You're in the Dojo at my Father's home. Didn't you have a date with Akari?" Akane blinked a few times while helping Ranma up slowly. Ryoga just dropped to his knees in despair and whimpered in his newest depression. "There there, Ryoga...why don't I call Akari for you and let her know you're here?"

"T-thanks so much Akane." Ryoga nodded dejectedly and pulled off his large backpack and set it next to himself with a thud.

"So, where y'been man?" Ranma asked suddenly, his interest in the situation growing.

"Uh. Well. I dunno. I got some souvenirs though." He pulled out a couple from his bag and handed them to Ranma. "What y'think?" He blinked and suddenly realized a whole bunch of cute girls were sitting in the room as well, causing the Lost Boy to blush faintly as he pulled out more to show them as well.

"Got any food?" Ranma asked.

"Of course not."

"Damn." Ranma grumbled while he looked at the trinket in his hands. "How the hell did ya manage to get t' California, New York, and Toronto and back in two days?"

Ryoga blinked and then snapped his fingers. "No wonder everyone was speaking English. Besides, aren't those places just West of Tokyo?"

All the untransformed Senshi blink and stare at that comment as the conversation between the two martial-artists turns to that exact topic of why Ryoga goes anywhere without a real map while the fanged male defended his precious map saying it did what it needed to do...even if it was hand drawn.

Akane walked back in at the end of the conversation with a smile. "Akari knows where you are and she'll be coming to pick you up tonight."

"Thanks Akane." Ryoga smiled.

"Uhm. Question. Is this kind of thing normal?" Ami asked with a slightly raised hand.

Ryoga, Akane and Ranma all looked at each other for a few seconds and rolled their shoulders in a shrug all at the same time. "It's a Nerima thing." Akane said first with Ryoga nodding in agreement.

Ranma nodded as well but cocked his head to the side, listening to something. "Nerima is for crazy and weird like Minato is for monster attacks while Chiyoda is known for it's used bookstores and paper users, and..."

"They get the point, Ranma." Akane said in exasperation, letting out a small wince at she rubbed one of the bruises on her face.

Of course, Ryoga picked that time to start paying attention to his surrounding and his eyes narrowed to slits as he finally spied the bruises on Akane's face and arms. He started to splutter and his aura became visible for all to see, rounding on Ranma, he started to point, but the words weren't coming out properly. Eventually, he managed to overcome his righteous indignation and spoke with a growl. "What the hell happened?"

"Kuso...you noticed, huh?" Ranma grumbled to himself.

"Who did it, Ranma..." Ryoga seethed.

"Hey now. I tried to stop her, but they got it in their head that it was the right things to do."

"...Who?"

"Ah...uhh...well..."

Ryoga reached over and grabbed the front of Ranma's shirt, dragging his rival closer. "Tell me."

"Well, y'see. The thing is...my girl side has her own personality now and well..."

"Don't take me for a fool!" Ryoga shoved Ranma back suddenly. "I'm not an idiot Ranma! How dare you hit Akane!"

"Now wait a second! I didn't do nothin'!"

"Ranma! Prepare to die!" Ryoga pulled the Umbrella off of his back and thrust it at Ranma's face.

Of course this caused almost all of the girls to back off suddenly as the boys started to circle each other, Ranma edging towards the door to take this kind of thing outside and not ruin the dojo again. "Dammit, Ryoga. It wasn't me!"

WIthout saying a word, Ryoga started to attack with his umbrella while Ranma weaved in and out of the way, not fighting back. The pig-tailed martial artist kept evading The Lost Boy's attacks as he moved further and further away from the girls. Soon enough, Ranma found his exit and jumped back forcefully, landing near the Koi Pond the Tendo's had in the yard. "Man, he's got a temper..." Ranma grumbled, ducking out of the way of another thrust from the umbrella. "Oops. Need to stay away from the pond too." He didn't want to drown in the time it took to transform into Selene, and despite everything, he would keep Ryoga's secret.

Soon enough, the fight was really on and the Senshi had followed to watch. Though Haruka was sorely tempted to intervene, it was Akane and Michiru that held her back while they continued to watch as Ranma ducked, bobbed, and weaved his way through Ryoga's attacks with both umbrella and fist. Though it would seem Ryoga's temper at the thought of Akane being hurt had dissipated, there was still something that that Ryoga was holding in, it was probably the fact that Ranma seemed to be distracted, his head turning off to the side every so often just before he frantically dodged out of the way.

"Selene must be distracting him." Setsuna mumured softly.

"How can you tell?" Hotaru asked gently.

"His reactions. He's the only one that can see and hear her. She's distracting him on purpose." Setsuna frowned. "I'd guess she's trying to hold a regular conversation or something along those lines."

And it was true. It got to the point that finally Ranma snapped. "Will you quit laug...OOF!" Of course, in his brief lapse of concentration he took a right hook to the jaw, sending him careening through the air and into the outer wall of the Tendo Home.

Of course, that was enough to cause everyone to pause as they watched Ranma fall to his knees and cough a little, spitting out a little blood suddenly. Ryoga, most of all, was very confused.

"Did...I actually just manage to deck him good?" Ryouga looked at his fist and then at Akane with a small flinch. "I didn't imagine what I just did, did I?" The Lost Boy looked as his fist in amazement before looking over at Ranma who was stumbling. "You okay over there?"

"Yeah, yeah." Ranma said with a grumble, getting to his feet, not swaying a little, though it seemed like he was tonguing the inside of his cheek. "Don't laugh at me!" he turned and shouted just over his shoulder.

"No, it's not funny!" Ranma suddenly retorted after half a second. He was ignoring the crazed look he was getting from Ryoga. "No. Dammit. D'you want t' fight him?"

* * *

Back on the porch, Setsuna shook her head and pulled herself back away from the group. "I'm going to go get some tea."

"Sure...I think we're going to continue watching this, it's kind of amusing." Haruka grinned.

"Agreed." Most of the Inners nodded along with that sentiment while Hotaru and Michiru were silent.

"Excellent. I shall be back in a few moments." Setsuna gave off an enigmatic smile and turned on her heel before walking off back to the regular part of the Tendo Home.

On her way there, she spied the Panda sitting at the table with Soun, this time playing Shougi instead of their usual game of Go. Without even looking up, the Panda lifted up a sign. ***How's things?***

"Could be better, could be worse." The green haired woman said nonchalantly. "I'm just here for some more tea."

***Kasumi is out.*** Flip. ***You'll have to get your own.*** Flip. ***Anything else?***Again, the Panda'd Genma didn't even look up from the board as he moved a single piece.

"I still don't understand how you can do that." Setsuna muttered, mainly to herself before looking at Soun on the other side of the board. "Sorry, Tendo-san, but can I borrow Genma for a moment to talk?"

"Of course, Meiou-san." Soun said while also not looking up.

"Excellent. Genma, let's go talk in the kitchen." The woman strode away as the Panda pushed himself back and up on his haunches before lumbering after Setsuna.

Once in the kitchen, Genma let out a soft 'growf' or a snort and worked the faucet, turning on the hot water and letting it run over his paw until he turned back into a human. The change was a lot more instantaneous than Ranma to Selene out in the Dojo. Soon enough, the bald martial artist was standing there once again. Replacing his glasses over his eyes after a second, having pulled them out of his gi. It was really odd how larger transformations from cursed victims kept their clothes on when they reverted back to human while smaller cursed forms lost theirs. Most odd.

"What?" Genma asked shortly.

"Look, you know I don't want to be here, but I'm here anyway." Setsuna replied blandly as she started heating up a kettle for some tea.

"Well, sure is a lot of good that got me." Genma grumbled. "I followed all of your instructions, did what I could and all that."

"Training started at two, I know. You put off the Neko-ken for as long as you could, I noticed." Setsuna nodded.

"Every time I talk to you, it's like we're discussing the weather instead of my boy." Genma grumbled.

"Yes, well...that's just how I am, I suppose." Setsuna turned and smiled somewhat at Genma. "I told you things would work out fine."

"Still, he almost never forgave me for that." Genma spoke softly, not really wanting to be heard. He did have a reputation to uphold. "I still regret it everyday. I'm just glad No-chan hasn't found out yet. She'll kill me."

"Oh, she won't." Setsuna said mysteriously. "Besides, outside of a few minor mishaps, you handled the Jusenkyo thing rather candidly."

"Yeah, yeah. I do have to ask though, did you know about this?" He gestured out towards the yard where Ranma and Ryoga were once again fighting.

"Honestly? Not a single bit. There was no way to predict that Selene would be reborn. It wasn't in any calculations or any news from the future. Nothing." Setsuna sighed as the water slowly heated before she finally turned to Genma and gave him a critical eye. "You know I got you to do what you did so that all of that nonsense would be here, away from from Minato. Do you honestly think that any of the Senshi could have dealt with Herb?"

"No way. Not in any shape or form." Genma sighed. "If it wasn't for the boy and the crazy stuff here, Herb would've probably been attracted to the energy being thrown around like crazy in Minato. Those girls really need to learn how to tone it down." The martial artist shook his head. "Not like I can speak for the boy. He did blow up a mountain in that fight."

"Indeed." Setsuna said wryly. "At this point, however, I've got no additional information to hand over. I'm operating cold here, and frankly. I don't like it."

"Welcome to my life." Genma grumbled.

The two of them looked out the window, watching the fight once again as the water continued to heat. The awkward silence between the two was finaly broken as the water from the kettle started to boil, then Setsuna poured it into cup. Idly she went about making herself her usual standard of green tea, all while trying to ignore the sounds of Ryoga and Ranma trying to beat each other.

"Setsuna. Why did you come in here?" Genma finally asked. "I know it wasn't for a pleasent conversation."

"It's hard, Genma. Every time I look at him..." she trailed off and a small shudder racked her body.

"There's still a chance, though you won't hear me admit it." Genma spoke quietly again.

"No. My time is up. My husband, my beloved gave his life for what he needed to do. Just because he has been reborn does not mean he is mine still." Setsuna let out a small bark of a laugh. "Thanks for the consideration however."

"Well, it's why I pushed for Akane...I really didn't think they would grow this close." Genma rolled his shoulders with a shrug. "Ukyo, he considers to much a friend. Shampoo tried to kill him to often...and really, Akane is to violent and angry. There is much hate and rage in the girl, sometimes I fear that she'll just snap one day."

"You did what you could with what you had to work with, Genma." Setsuna shrugged, swirling her tea around slowly. "You're officially relieved of duty."

The large martial artist grimaced at that last remark and let out a bone weary sigh, almost slumping over. Genma finally shook his head as he collected his thoughts. "Not quite yet, Setsuna...it's not over yet."

"Your work is done, General Saotome." Setsuna said gently.

"It isn't until I've taught him everything." Genma rebuked. "Princess Pluto." he added almost as an afterthought.

The green-haired Senshi of Time smiled amost as gently as she last spoke, finally testing her tea and giving it a small sip. "Fine then. Teach him everything you know. Then you can retire and be done with this whole mess."

"As you command." Genma gave a small bow and grinned a little as he took off his glasses. Turning the water from the faucet to cold, he dipped his fingers in it and then eventually turned back into a panda, shambling back towards the living room and the game of Shougi with Soun.

Once the man was out of earshot, Setsuna shook her head ruefully and sipped her finally done tea once more. "As I command, so mote it be. As I command indeed." Her voice went soft, almost dead as she left the kitchen to rejoin her Princess and other companions to finish watching the fight. "Here's hoping I didn't fuck everything up..." she raised her tea cup to herself in mock salute as she passed the mirror in the entrance and plastered a fake smile on her lips once she finally got back.

**Notes from the Author:**

Been sitting on this for a while. The fight was sucking, snice I'm horrible at writing hand to hand combat. Work much ebtter with weapons and all that. Not going to address msot of the comments and questions I got with the last chapter except for one of them.

Someone said that they didn't see this as a Ranma and Setsuna pairing, because it really isn't...I didn't know that when I chose their names that I was 'pairing' them together. I chose them, like I did for my other fics, because they're the main two characters I'm writing as. This is post canon-manga, which means that, unless something happens to Akane, she's the main one for Ranma, at this point in time.

Also, note that yes, Setsuna is meddling. It amuses me so.

I'll try and work on making the fights better, but really, my muse is more on a Naruto kick as noted by my other stories, but I won't be putting this one off for four months again like this chapter took. Sorry about that.


End file.
